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ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS 



A DISSERTATION 

Presented to the Faculty of Bryn Mawr College 
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 



SARA HENRY STITES 



1904 



PBE86 OF 

Tmi niw E«» PaumM cottrun 

LANCASTER, PA. 



I905 



In Eich&npe. 



T 



CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Sketch of the Economic Systems of the North American Indians. 

The Arctic, the Barren, the Forest, the Plain, and the Desert-Oasis 
Environments; — the domestic economy characteristic of the 
Barren and Arctic Environments, the village economy charac- 
teristic of the Western Forest Environment, the republican 
clan economy characteristic of the Plain Environment, the 
communal clan economy characteristic of the Desert-Oasis 
Environment i 

The economic systems of the Eastern Forest Environment " 



PART I. 

Economic Antecedents of Iroquois Culture. 

CHAPTER I. — The Environment of the Iroquois. 

The transitional state of Iroquois culture 13 

Location and previous history 13 

Nature of environment in seventeenth century 14 

A geographic unity 14 

Topography 15 

Hydrography 15 

Climate 16 

Potential utilities : — Food products — animal and vegetable ; Raw 

materials — animal, vegetable, and mineral 16 

The Hurons, a related tribe living in a similar environment 19 

CHAPTER II. — The Productive Activities of the Iroquois. 

Manner of production: — root grubbing, and fruit and nut gathering; 

hunting and trapping ; fishing ; agriculture 20 

Relative importance of these different activities : — the growing ten- 
dency of the Iroquois to depend for subsistence upon agricul- 
ture 23 

Manufactures 26 

iii 



iv ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

CHAPTER III.— The Organization of Producers. 

The sexual division of labor 2 7 

The organization of producers 3° 

Instances of the existence of the domestic economy 3° 

The clan economy characteristic of the Iroquois 3 1 

The women's agricultural clan 3 1 

The men's clan, primarily an organization of warriors and secondarily 

a hunting body 3 2 

Relative influence of the two clans upon the life of the community as 

a whole ; the prominence of the women's clan 38 

Tribal organization 39 

Confederate organization 4° 

The servile class of producers — captives and effeminate men 41 

The position of the medicine men in production 42 

CHAPTER IV.— The Wealth of the Iroquois. 

The concrete economic concept of wealth 44 

Primary production goods : 

For general use — the knife and axe 44 

For hunting — the bow and arrow, traps and snares, the dog 46 

For fishing — the harpoon, the net, the weir 48 

For agriculture — the wooden rake, the digging stick, the hoe 49 

Secondary production goods : 

For the preparation of food — the weighted drill and spindle-whorl, 5° 

cooking and eating utensils of earthenware, wood, and bark. ... 53 
For the making of clothing — scrapers, bone awls, and needles, etc. 
Means of transportation — bretelles and burden straps, snow-shoes 

and sleds, canoes 54 

Consumption goods : 
Articles of food — 

Maize preparations the staple of village life 57 

Meat and fish the principal articles of food during the hunt 

and the fishing expedition 5^ 

Beverages 5§ 

Stored surplus 5^ 

Clothings and furnishings, — textiles and articles of skin 60 

Armor 61 

Shelter, — stationary dwellings of wood and bark 61 

The village and its fortifications 64 

The abstract economic concept of wealth; the Iroquois use of wam- 



pum 



66 



The prestige value of wampum 67 



CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER V.— The Distribution of Wealth. 

The confederacy 69 

The tribe 69 

The men's clan 7° 

The women's clan 7 r 

Inheritance 7 2 

The influence of the clan principle of distribution upon the consump- 
tion group 73 

The place of the individual in the distributive system 74 

The medicine men — a class above the clan and exacting tribute 76 

The captives — a class below the clan and rendering tribute 78 

CHAPTER VI.— Exchange. 

A system of barter between tribes 79 

Trade carried on to a great extent by the men's clans as such 80 

Means of effecting exchange ; — present giving 81 

The use of wampum as a medium of exchange 82 



PART II. 

Sociological Consequents. 

CHAPTER I.— The Family. 

The two forms of the family in general 85 

The paternal family, the one form of organization known to the do- 
mestic and village economy 85 

The paternal family, the unit of consumption in the republican clan 

economies 86 

The maternal family characteristic of the society dominated by the 

communal clan 86 

The origin of the maternal form of the family to be sought in the 
transitional economy in which the women's clan monopolized 

the agricultural surplus 87 

Example in primitive Semitic life 87 

The maternal family in the Iroquois village 87 

Influence of the men's clan 88 

Obligations of "he marriage contract 88 

The advantages on the side of the wife 89 

The elevated position of the wife in the Iroquois family 9° 

Parental and filial relationships 9 2 

The reappearance of the paternal family during the hunting season... 93 



VI ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

CHAPTER II. — State and Government. 

Unsatisfactoriness of the kinship theory of Iroquois society 9< 

The economic basis of Iroquois political institutions 9* 

The political life of the Iroquois sedentary community; — the gentile 
government representative of both clans, and more particularly 

of the women's clan; — the functions of the gentile government. 97 

The village or tribal government ioi 

The council of the Elders 103 

The functions of the tribal council iof 

The nature of Iroquois laws, — custom-made rules of conduct, the in- 
violability of which was guaranteed by the council 107 

The chiefs the executive agents of the council 107 

The representative nature of the government shown by the fact that 

public opinion was the only sanction of the laws io£ 

Incorrigibility punished by exclusion from the organization na 

Treason punished by death 1 1 1 

The confederate government, a council composed of gentile chiefs... 112 
The system of voting in the council of the confederacy a proof of the 

economic basis of the government 113 

The general council of the confederacy 1 14 

The functions of the council of the confederacy 114 

The executive machinery of the confederacy 115 

The government of the men's clan on the hunt and on the war-path.. 115 

The Iroquois aristocracy "7 

The disfranchised class 118 

The share in sovereignty possessed by the medicine men 120 

CHAPTER III.— Religion. 

The economic foundation of all primitive religions 121 

Fetishism the result of the domestic economy 121 

The religion characteristic of hunters and herders 122 

The religion characteristic of the agricultural community 123 

When economic life is in a transitional state, religious development 

is found to correspond I2 5 

Deities of the Iroquois 126 

Traces of fetishism in Iroquois religion I2 6 

Polytheism the dominant characteristic of their religion 127 

Deification of various animal types of importance to the hunter 127 

Deification of certain species of plants of importance to agriculture.. 12S 
Predominance of animal worship resulting from religious conserva- 
tism 120 

Deification of natural phenomena influencing economic life : — the Sky, 

the Sun, etc 12c 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Ceremonials connected with hunting deities 135 

Ceremonials connected with agricultural deities 137 

Organization of worshipers corresponding to organization of pro- 
ducers 138 

The beginnings of a Priesthood 139 

Secret societies 139 

The medicine men a separate religious class 140 

CHAPTER IV.— Morals. 

Virtues — the qualities likely to insure success in economic life 144 

CHAPTER V.— General Culture. 

Economic conditions explain the characteristic features of the general 

culture of the Iroquois *47 

Their fine physical development *47 

The extent of their astronomical knowledge 148 

The extent of their knowledge of medicine 148 

Their knowledge of agriculture methods 149 

The Iroquois calendar I 5° 

Development of system of communication and record keeping 151 

Tact, conversational ability, etc r 55 

Esthetic taste ! 55 



INTRODUCTION. 

The investigations carried on under Professor Keasbey's direc- 
tion by students of the seminar during- the past few years have 
led to the formulation of certain general conclusions in regard to 
the development of primitive societies. 

An economy, according to Professor Keasbey, may be defined 
as " a system of activities whereby the potential utilities inherent 
in the environment are through utilization converted into actual 
utilities." 1 The motives making for utilization are everywhere 
the same ; nevertheless, since the potential utilities of one en- 
vironment differ from those of another, processes of utilization 
must differ accordingly. Starting from this principle, it has been 
found convenient to plot off the surface of the earth into a series 
of typical environments ; c. g. the jungle, the arctic, the barren, 
the forest, the plain, the desert oasis, the river valley, etc. The 
nature of the potential utilities characteristic of each of these 
environments seems in every case to determine the process of 
utilization and hence the economic life of the inhabitants. Every- 
where similar conditions seem to result in similar forms of utiliza- 
tion. Between the economic activities and the social institutions 
of mankind there is also perceptible a relation of cause and effect. 
Everywhere like systems of utilization give rise to like familial, 
political, and ecclesiastical institutions. 

The work assigned me has been confined chiefly to the primitive 
societies of North America. The results gained from an in- 
tensive study of Iroquois life, I shall present in this monograph. 

In order to make plain the significance of Iroquois institutions 
it will be advisable, in a general way, to relate their environment 
with the other environments of North America, and their manner 
of life with the manners of life of other Indian tribes. At the 

1,1 A Classification of Economics." Reprint from Proc. Am. Philos. 
Soc, Vol. XLI, No. 169, page 1. 

1 1 



2 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

beginning of the sixteenth century, North America, exclusive 
of Mexico, included several more or less distinct cultural areas, 
which may be enumerated in the following order: first, the Arctic 
Environment, extending all the way across the northern-most 
zone of the continent, its southern boundary being the indefinite 
line marking the transition from the frigid to the cold temperate 
zone; second, the Barren Environment, stretching from the Rocky 
Mountains on the east to the Pacific coast ranges on the west, 
and from the Columbia River on the north to the Colorado River 
valley on the south ; third, the Forest Environment, including the 
eastern portion of the continent from the Atlantic to the western 
edge of the forest belt, and also the narrow region lying along 
the Pacific coast west of the Coast Ranges ; fourth, the Plain En- 
vironment, extending from the edge of the forest belt to the Rocky 
Mountains ; and fifth, the Desert-Oasis Environment, stretching 
from the Colorado River southward to the Gulf and into Mexico. 
Each of these environments possessed certain characteristic fea- 
tures which determined the manner of life of the early inhabitants. 

In the sterile and ice-bound environment of the Arctic area, 
the basis of subsistence was fish, whales, and seals. Even this 
food supply was often scanty and difficult to obtain. In general, 
the conditions under which man carried on the struggle for exist- 
ence were extremely hard, and allowed very little opportunity for 
progress. 

• The western slope of the Rocky Mountains and the great plain 
adjoining well deserved the epithet " barren." This region, cut 
off by the coast ranges from the moist breezes of the Pacific and 
by the Rocky Mountains from the Atlantic winds, was an arid and 
sterile desert with little or no vegetation and but a scanty supply 
of fish and small game. Thus the Barren, like the Arctic En- 
vironment, offered little encouragement to primitive progress. 

The eastern forest region rejoiced in a mild climate and a 
plentiful rainfall. Before the European settlement the whole dis- 
trict was covered by a forest of varying density, the trees growing 
thickest in the temperate and warm temperate parts of the east 
and south, and becoming fewer in the north toward Hudson's 
Bay, and in the west throughout the park-like region in the 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

vicinity of the Mississippi. The whole section was stocked with 
fish and game. From the Great Lakes southward, the climate 
was warm and the soil fertile enough to encourage more or less 
cultivation of maize in the river valleys and open spaces and clear- 
ings in the woods. Generally speaking, it was an environment 
conducing to a hunting and fishing life, with a growing depend- 
ence upon maize culture toward the south. 

The western forest environment, stretching from the Columbia 
River valley down along the Pacific coast, was characterized by an 
equable oceanic climate and by an abundant flora and fauna. It 
was especially rich in fish, small game, nuts, roots, etc. The main 
difference between the western and the eastern forest environ- 
ment is to be found in the fact that in the latter the main supply 
was game, while in the former fish took the chief place. 

The Great Plain, between the Mississippi River and the Rocky 
Mountains, though traversed by several large river systems tribu- 
tary to the Mississippi, was a comparatively arid region with but 
a scanty rainfall. Hence there was but little vegetation. Never- 
theless, this section of the continent was originally well stocked 
with game. Over its vast extent great herds of buffalo ranged, 
subsisting on the long succulent grass with which the prairie was 
covered, and migrating from north to south, and back again, ac- 
cording to the seasons. Before the Discovery the Prairie was 
not inhabited, except by occasional bands of buffalo hunters on 
expeditions from their villages on the Mississippi and its great 
western tributaries. The introduction of the horse gave a decided 
impetus to buffalo hunting as a means of livelihood. After this 
event the great stock of the Sioux pushed farther and farther into 
the wilderness, and developed more and more perfectly the econ- 
omy in social life typical of nomadic plain-dwelling people the 
world over. 

The region south of the barren plateau, between the Colorado 
River valley and the Gulf of Mexico, has been called the desert- 
oasis environment. Here "the sterile highland was deeply gashed 
by swift-flowing rivers, which found their sources in the Rocky 
Mountains and emptied into the Gulf of California on the one 
hand, and into the Gulf of Mexico on the other. In the deep 



4 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

river valleys were rich alluvial deposits which, with the help of 
irrigation, could be, and were, cultivated. Hence the aboriginal 
inhabitants of the region were gathered in small isolated agricul- 
tural communities, depending for subsistence chiefly upon maize 
culture. 

The environmental conditions of each of the areas just de- 
scribed required in every case the adoption by the primitive in- 
habitants of an economic system suitable to their surroundings. 
Their economy in turn determined the nature of their social insti- 
tutions. In fact, the forms of the family, of the state, and of 
religion among any given people, are, according to the hypothesis, 
to be regarded as sociological consequents of certain economic 
antecedents : in other words, they are the outcome of the peculiar 
systems of production, consumption, and distribution that have 
proved most advantageous in a given environment. In the bar- 
ren environment of the great western desert, marked by extremes 
of temperature and poverty of flora and fauna, the food-quest 
consisted primarily of root grubbing and acorn gathering, with 
some fishing, and hunting of small animals. The means of pro- 
duction consisted of such inventions as were needed to procure 
food ; as, for instance, the bow and arrow, the digging stick, and 
the basket for carrying roots and nuts. The production group in 
this case was the family ; the wife gathering roots and nuts and 
bringing up the children, while the husband obtained what fish 
and game he could find and acted as defender of the group. 
Anything less than this mere sexual association of labor was 
impossible, if the species was to be preserved. Anything more 
extensive in the line of cooperation was likewise made impossible 
by the scantiness of the food supply, and the consequent necessity 
of dispersion in the smallest possible groups. " The Mountain 
Snakes," says Schoolcraft, " exist in small detached bodies and 
single families, and change their locations so widely that they 
seem to have no particular claim to any portion.'' 1 Similar cir- 
cumstances as regards scarcity of food resulted in a similar man- 
ner of life during a large part of the year among the Esquimaux 
of the Arctic region. We are told that " The Esquimaux live in 

1 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 224. 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

the most perfect state of independence of each other, — the youth, 
as soon as he is able to build a kaiak and to support himself, no 
longer observes any family ties, but goes where his fancy takes 
him." Obviously, therefore, the consumption and distribution 
group must also have been represented by the family : of ex- 
change, there was no question. 

From the point of view of politics, also, among the Esquimaux, 
as among the Indians of the Great Desert, the family was at once 
the largest and the smallest group. Mere congregation of these 
units might occur at certain seasons in spots where acorns or 
fish were plentiful. At the most, however, only a loose tem- 
porary organization resulted. The family remained the social 
unit and wandered off again when it pleased, a complete political 
and production group. Within the family, husband and wife 
associated their labor in producing the surplus ; nevertheless, the 
female, isolated from others of her own sex, was entirely de- 
pendent upon the male for defense and hence for access to the 
source of supply. The man, then, may be said to have controlled 
the social surplus ; hence sovereignty belonged to him, and he 
wielded unlimited authority over the little group of which he 
was the head : in other words, the rule of the husband and father 
was the only government known to these domestic economists. 
The religion and morals of this stage of culture were of the 
simplest description. Their religion was the lowest form of 
Fetishism — abject fear of disutilities and reverence of utilities. 

A stage above the domestic economists of the Arctic region and 
the Great Desert stood the village economists of the western forest. 
True, the latter had made no distinct advance in methods of pro- 
duction nor in political organization ; yet from the economic posi- 
tion which they occupied, some progress in these respects became 
possible. On the northwest coast, the periodical ascent of the rivers 
by the salmon at the spawning season afforded the aborigines an 
abundant and regular food supply. Families, therefore, did not 
need to separate as they increased in numbers ; on the contrary, 
large gentile groups remained together, settled near the good 
fishing places, while their means of production tended to become 
preeminently a stock of implements and inventions of especial use 



6 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

in fishing". As a consequence, to the acquisitive goods of the 
domestic economy were added a new set of commodities ; never- 
theless there was no material advance in the methods of produc- 
tion. Though the abundance of the food supply rendered possible 
the congregation of large numbers of families, the nature of the 
supply called for no great amount of cooperation among producers. 
In the construction and defense of the fish-weir there was indeed 
some combination, but this was of the loosest kind. In the main, 
the family continued to be the unit, of production and consump- 
tion — the husband attending to the catching of the fish, and the 
women of the family looking after the other productive activities. 1 
The family support was further augmented by slave labor, now 
made possible by the abundance of the food supply, and also by 
the fact that the fishing implements supplied to the captive slave 
could not be used as weapons to attack the master. The fact that 
slave labor was practicable also caused some slight differences in 
distribution as between different families. Hence occurred a 
faint manifestation of the phenomenon of prestige value. Some 
families were richer than others lii slaves, and hence in stores of 
food, blankets, etc. Furthermore, the more slaves a man had, 
the more wives he could own, since the surplus product of the 
slaves' labor could be used to support these women. Slaves there- 
fore came to be regarded as a sort of standard of value, in terms 
of which a man's wealth was sometimes estimated. 

The introduction of the village economy wrought little essential 
change in the constitution of the state. The village was, in the 
main, only a congregation of many domestic economies. There 
might be, of course, some temporary military organization for 
purposes of defense ; undoubtedly, too, some general influence was 
constantly exerted by one or two of the older and richer men, for 
the purpose of keeping peace and order among the different fam- 
ilies : nevertheless, the political and governmental system differed 
but little from that of domestic economists. Each family or gens 
in the village continued to form a separate political and govern- 
mental unit, in which the father or patriarch was the sovereign 
power. 

'Keasbey, "Inst, of Society," Internet, Mo., I, 383, 386. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

So far but one really fundamental type of economy has ap- 
peared. This is the " domestic " system, adapted to regions 
where the nature of the food-supply makes cooperation not advan- 
tageous. Even the village economy was a mere aggregation of 
domestic economies. Yet a distinction must be made between 
the village and the domestic systems, because in the former the 
occasional appearance of a new principle is noticeable. The man- 
agement of the weir in the salmon fishing season and the defense 
of their collective riparian rights caused at certain seasons the 
formation of an organization among the men of the different 
families. This temporary union of the men of the village into a 
band, each member of which cooperated with all the rest in order 
to carry out certain definite purposes, was the clan : hence, for the 
time being, the family as a productive and political unit disap- 
peared, and the clan took its place. 

Where the cooperative method of production had through force 
of environmental circumstances reached a fuller development and 
become comparatively permanent, the general character of village 
life was correspondingly altered. The settlement was no longer 
a mere aggregation of families each economically and politically 
independent of the others. On the contrary, its chief productive 
activities were carried on by an association of cooperating indi- 
viduals, bound together not merely by family affection, but by the 
ties of economic interest. In order to keep up the population, 
the family remained in existence, but it had no economic function 
beyond that of consumption. As a productive association, it had 
become merged in the clan ; and political sovereignty passed from 
the individual fathers of families to the clan as a whole. The lat- 
ter now controlled the access to the source of supply, and conse- 
quently had absolute power over such of the inhabitants of the 
village as were without the limits of the clan, and were dependent 
upon it for support or defense. Government, therefore, was rep- 
resentative only of the clan. In the establishment of this clan 
principle is to be found the origin of organized society. " The 
clan," says Professor Keasbey, " is neither a confederacy of 
domestic units nor an aggregation of individuals, but an organiza- 
tion in the full force of the term — it is a corporation, an economic 



8 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

body politic, whose constituent members are not so much severally 
bound, as jointly united in a common cause. The permanent 
productive clan is, in short, the first form of the state." 1 

The first stage of development of the clan economy occurred 
in the Plain environment. In this region, the buffalo supplied 
all the prime necessaries of existence. The wandering habits 
of the animal and its gregarious tendencies taken together 
with the nature of its habitat had a distinct effect upon the 
economy of the human beings who depended upon it for subsist- 
ence. The buffalo hunting tribes were naturally clan economists. 
After the introduction of the horse had enabled tribes like the 
Dacotahs and Comanches to push out farther into the Plain, and 
to depend entirely upon the buffalo as their source of supply, the 
process of organization seems to have been completed. 2 Produc- 
tion ceased to be carried on by the family group with its mere 
sexual association of labor. On the contrary, the productive unit 
was a group outside the family and even antagonistic to it. 
Withdrawing from their families all the able-bodied men, it united 
them, under a leader with authority of life and death, in a closely 
organized cooperative band. Each member of the group had his 
part to perform in the buffalo hunt, some acted as scouts, others 
as a sort of police, others as simple marksmen. 3 A similarly rigid 
military organization existed. Just as every able-bodied man was 
a hunter, so also was he a warrior, likely at any time to be called 
by force of public opinion to join some war party, and under the 
leadership of a war chief to cooperate with others in the defense 
of the hunting grounds or in the preservation of their prestige 
among their neighbors. To this hunting and warring republican 
clan, the women of the group formed a sort of subsidiary and 
unorganized set of assistants. The means of subsistence once 
procured by the men's clan, the women prepared it for use. They 
cut up the meat, and prepared the skins for use as clothing and 

1 " Inst, of Soc," Internal Mo., I, p. 395. 

2 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 207-208; IV, 60. 
Margry, VI, 444-445- 

Perrot, pp. 60-64. 

3 Dodge, " The Plains of the Great West," pp. 263-266. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

tent coverings. 1 Besides doing this work, they gathered roots, 
and in some cases cultivated a little maize. Their labor, however, 
was not of the sort that either requires or encourages cooperation : 
hence they worked individually, without any particular organiza- 
tion among themselves, each producing as the servant of some 
member of the men's clan ; in short, an organized band of men 
formed the typical production group of the Plains tribes. It con- 
trolled the access to the source of supply, and directed the labor 
of the women. Though the consumption group was still the 
family, the unit of distribution was the clan. In the latter, each 
member received a share of the animals killed in the hunt, the 
actual slayers receiving some special portion as a mark of their 
prowess. 1 

The sociological effects of the republican clan economy are 
evident, in the first place, in the family. Paternal authority was 
supreme in the lodge. Wife and children belonged absolutely to 
the husband and father, and all purely family affairs were regu- 
lated by him, without reference to any outside organization. 3 
Men who could procure several wives did so, since they were use- 
ful as laborers and child-bearers. Sons were valued as adding to 
the wealth of the family while they remained unmarried, and as 
always increasing the influence of the father. Daughters, on the 
other hand, were regarded merely as articles to be sold to the 
highest bidder. In all this, conditions did not differ greatly from 
those prevalent in the domestic and village economies. 

Politically, however, there arose a new state of affairs. The 
state was now identical with the male clan — the latter controlling 
the sources of the surplus, and so possessing sovereign power in 
political life. To the women belonged no shadow of sovereignty. 
Speaking of the Comanches, Schoolcraft says, " Females have no 
voice or even influence in their councils,"* and are " held in small 

Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 236; II, 132. 

2 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes/' II, 185. 

3 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," II, 131-132 — "A husband exercises 
unbounded authority over the person of his wife." 

Bancroft, I, 509 — " Every father holds undisputed sway over his chil- 
dren." 

4 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," II, 131. 



10 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

estimation." ' Hence, from the women's point of view, the gov- 
ernment was an absolute despotism. Within the clan, on the 
other hand, the purest republicanism prevailed, all good hunters 
and warriors having an equal share in the management of affairs. 2 
The chieftanship was given to the ablest and most experienced 
hunter, especially if he had a large number of blood relations to 
support his claims. He exercised governmental powers, however, 
only as the representative of the sovereign body of hunters and 
warriors, and with their advice and consent. All decisions of 
importance were made by the clan council, the voice of the 
majority prevailing. 

In the Desert-Oasis environment, south of the Colorado River 
the clan principle manifested itself in a still more developed form. 
The inhabitants of this region depended for subsistence mainly 
upon maize culture. In this industry women were the pioneers. 
Hence in the course of time they formed a productive association 
of their own which, in certain circumstances, came to compete 
with the men's hunting and war clan, and gained the first place in 
the economic life of the community. Eventually, when conditions 
required, as among the Pueblo Indians, the men also took up 
agriculture ; and the two clans united in one body. This com- 
munal clan, composed of both men and women, was the form of 
organization characteristic of the primitive agricultural settle- 
ments of the southwest. The distribution group was now the 
communal clan, though the family still continued to be the unit 
of consumption. The family, however, showed the effect of 
economic antecedents in the reduced authority of the father and 
the correspondingly increased influence of the mother. The wife 
rather than the husband was now regarded as the head of the 
family. The state, too, showed the influence of the changed 
methods of production. Sovereignty resided in the body of co- 
operating producers that controlled the sources of the surplus ; i. e. 
in the communal clan. Women became sharers in the possession 
of sovereign power. Government was carried on by purely 

1 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 235. 
2 Ibid., V, 687; II, 130. 



INTRODUCTION. I I 

democratic methods, all having a voice in the management of 
affairs. Age and experience and consequent knowledge of cli- 
matic conditions affecting agricultural operations were the quali- 
fications sought for in those who were chosen governors of the 
community. 

The Plains and the Oases of the Desert presented, perhaps, the 
clearest examples of each form of clan economy when isolated 
and complete in its development. The Eastern Forest environ- 
ment, however, affords the student the best opportunity to observe 
the slow growth of the cooperative principle. Within its limits, 
from north to south, were economies in every stage of develop- 
ment. In the cold and thickly wooded section about the St. Law- 
rence River, where the food supply was comparatively scarce and 
irregular, the domestic economy prevailed for the greater part of 
the year. Congregation occurred in spots where food was tem- 
porarily abundant, but when the season was over each family 
wandered off by itself, to carry on its food-quest as best it might. 
The Quebec Indians, for instance, were " wanderers . . . during 
the six winter months — roving here and there according as they 
might find game, two or three families erecting their cabins to- 
gether in one place, two or three in another, and so on." 1 In 
times of famine, " they play, so to speak, at ' save himself who 
can ' — deserting each other and abandoning all interest in the 
common welfare, each one strives to find something for himself. 
Then the children, women, and for that matter all those who can- 
not hunt, die of cold and hunger." 2 Thus in times of compara- 
tive plenty the village system might appear for a season, while 
in times of great scarcity the food-quest became a purely indi- 
vidual matter. In general, however, the economy characteristic 
of the northern portion of the Eastern Forest environment was 
domestic. In the warmer climate and more favorable condi- 
tions of the central portion, the principles of association and 
cooperation began to operate. Here two clans — the men's and 

*Jes. Rel. IV, 203. Cf. "La Potherie." T, 118 sq. ; "Le Clercq." 67 sq. 
"Lettres Edifiantes," X, 315 sq. Jes. Rel. II, 77; LXII, 221; XXXIII. 

153- 
2 Jes. Rel. VII, 49- 



12 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

the women's, the one a warring and hunting, and the other an 
agricultural organization — existed side by side in the same com- 
munity. Finally, in the warm districts of the far South, there 
was developed the regular communal clan economy, typical of 
the primitive agricultural community. Among the Ayennis, near 
the mouth of the Mississippi River, says Charlevoix, " when the 
season for cultivation arrives, there assemble sometimes as many 
as a hundred persons, the men and the women separately. They 
work thus until they have cultivated a certain portion of ground, 
the owner of which subsequently feasts the workers. . . . The 
next day they begin again, and this goes on until all the fields 
are worked over." 1 Among the Natchez, progress had gone so 
far that the men of the community really did most of the work. 
A desirable husband, according to the Jesuit Relation, had to be 
" a skilful hunter, a good warrior, and an excellent field-worker." 2 

1 Charlevoix, II, 15-16. 

2 Jes. Rel. LXVIII, 141. Cf. Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, 
pp. 524 note, 527, 530. 
Lafitau, II, 80; "Lettres Edinantes," XX, 118-119. 



PART I. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Environment of the Iroquois. 

The Iroquois tribes inhabited the central portion of the eastern 
forest region of North America. Here, in an environment transi- 
tional between that of the upper and that of the lower sections 
of the area in question, they developed a culture which is like- 
wise to be regarded as a connecting link between those which 
prevailed to the north and to the south of them. Iroquois civiliza- 
tion stood midway between the lowest and the highest stage of 
the natural state. An analysis of the life of these tribes, there- 
fore, affords an admirable demonstration of the laws according 
to which society was first developed. 

Though the history of the Iroquois before the coming of the 
Europeans is mainly a matter of tradition and conjecture, yet the 
present consensus e fe - opinion is somewhat as follows. 1 The val- 
leys drained by the Columbia River and the streams flowing into 
Puget Sound were probably the early home of the Iroquois. 
Here, not less than ten centuries ago, they lived as a fish-eating 
people, ignorant of agriculture and organized only to the extent 
generally characteristic of the village economy of the northwest 
coast. Migrating from this region, they finally reached the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, where they learned agriculture. Here the Chero- 
kees broke off from the main stem and turned southwards. The 
other tribes, including the ancestors of the Hurons, Eries, and 
Neutrals, as well as those of the Five Nations, remained together 
for a longer period, settled probably in the Ohio Valley. 2 From 

'Morgan, "League" (ed. 1901), Appendix B. 
Thwaites, Jes. Rel. VIII, 293. 

2 Mr. Morgan's theory that the first sedentary home of the Iroquois 
was in the vicinity of Montreal, is altogether improbable. At any rate, 

13 



14 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

here, the different tribes of the Iroquois stock scattered to their 
historic locations in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Can- 
ada. At the time of their first acquaintance with the Europeans, 
the Iroquois and Hurons had long been settled in their respective 
homes. The country of the Iroquois in the seventeenth century 
lay south of Lake Ontario between the Hudson River and Lake 
Erie. In the center of this tract, occupying the Onondaga River 
valley and the adjacent hills, was the tribe of the Onondagas. 
On their right hand, around and near Oneida Lake, were the 
principal villages of the Oneidas. On their left, along the east 
shore of Cayuga Lake and the ridge to the eastward, the Cayugas 
were settled. The western frontier, as far as the Genesee River, 
was occupied by the Senecas, while the eastern boundaries were 
defended by the Mohawks, who lived in the valley of the river 
bearing their name. 

From the point of view of geographic unity, the location finally 
chosen by the Iroquois was well adapted to be the permanent 
habitat of tribes already connected by ties of kinship and associa- 
tion. The region was enclosed on the north and west by the St. 
Lawrence River and by Lakes Ontario and Erie, while on the 
east it was shut in by the Appalachian mountain ranges. Within 
these boundaries there were no bars to communication or differ- 
ences in environment. Hence the tribes living in the region would 
naturally tend to develop along similar lines, and become more 
closely united among themselves. Although the Iroquois were 
protected by mountain and lake barriers from outside attack, 
nevertheless they were not entirely imprisoned. Situated on the 
highest part of the region east of the Mississippi, they had the 
best possible highways leading into the outer world in the great 

he is undoubtedly mistaken in his idea, based upon some vague tradition, 
that the Iroquois learned agriculture from the Adirondacks. The Valley 
of the St. Lawrence, where maize crops often failed, was not an environ- 
ment where agriculture was likely to be adopted by a people hitherto 
ignorant of it. Furthermore, even though it might have been here that 
they first learned to cultivate maize, it is absurd to suppose that the Adi- 
rondacks were their teachers, since the latter were nomad hunters who 
knew nothing about agriculture. Cf. Lloyd in Morgan's League. Ed. 
1901, Appendix B. 



ENVIRONMENT OF THE IROQUOIS. I 5 

rivers whose headwaters find their sources here. These wire 
routes whose swift currents made an easy exit for Iroquois war- 
riors and a difficult approach for hostile bands. In short, says 
Mr. Morgan, the Iroquois, " situated upon the head waters of the 
Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Ohio, and the St. 
Lawrence rivers — flowing in every direction to the sea — held 
within their jurisdiction the gates of the country, and could 
through them descend at will upon any point." ' 

The Iroquois territory itself was, in general, hilly and covered 
with forests of hemlock, maple, pine, oak, and other trees char- 
acteristic of the temperate zone. Among the hills, however, were 
many fertile valleys, and here and there were open tracts of 
alluvial land, — all favorable to such agriculture as the inhabitants 
knew how to carry on. Onondaga, for example, was a hilly dis- 
trict, but, says one of the early travellers, " there is a small valley, 
which is very fertile, and yields almost incredible crops of corn, 
which is plentiful about here." 2 One of the Jesuits, writing to 
his superior from his station among the Cayugas, says, " Goio- 
gouen is the fairest country that I have seen in America. ... It is 
a tract situated between two lakes and not exceeding four leagues 
in width, consisting of almost uninterrupted plains, the woods 
bordering which are extremely beautiful." 3 In the Seneca coun- 
try, there were several such open tracts, formed by a recession of 
the hills from the bed of the Genesee River. In one place " the 
alluvial flats through which the river meanders for four or five 
miles above, and as many miles below, are from one to two miles 
wide . . . level . . . and fertile. . . . These flats are encompassed on 
each side by a rolling country, gradually rising as it recedes from 
the river. . . . This was the terrestrial paradise of the Senecas." 4 

So far as its water supply was concerned, the Iroquois country 
was extremely well off. It was intersected by innumerable 
streams and dotted with lakes ranging in size from small ponds 
to large sheets of water several miles in extent. Of the larger 

'Morgan, "League" (ed. 1901), I, 38. 
'Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," IV, 340. 
3 Jes. Rel. LVI, 49- 
4 "Life of Mary Jemison," pp. 85 sq. 



1 6 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

lakes, there were about a half dozen distributed throughout the 
different cantons of the Five Nations. In the middle of the 
Seneca country was Canandaigua Lake, and east of it was Seneca 
Lake; the Cayuga territory contained Cayuga Lake, a sheet of 
water twenty-eight miles long and from two to four miles wide ; 
the Onondagas owned Skaneateles Lake; the Oneidas controlled 
the lake named after them ; and the Mohawk country rejoiced in 
numberless lakes, including Lake Champlain and Lake George on 
its eastern borders. Throughout the whole country, springs were 
frequent ; and the variety in the kinds of waters they gave was 
great, ranging from the clearest drinking water to the salt springs 
and the mineral springs for which the region is now famous. All 
these bodies of water — streams, lakes and springs — formed centers 
of animal and vegetable life, while as routes for internal travel 
the rivers and lakes were invaluable. 

Climatic conditions were, also, not unpropitious. In this region 
there was a regular succession of seasons — spring and summer, 
autumn and winter. The summer was long and warm enough 
to have encouraged aboriginal maize-culture, while the winters 
were not so severe as in the region north of the Great Lakes. 
The rainfall was abundant, and the soil, especially on the river- 
flats and in other open or cleared spots, was by nature extremely 
fertile. 

The environment of the Iroquois was, therefore, comparatively 
rich in potential utilities. Animal and vegetable food products 
were abundant. Moose and deer, bear and beaver, and many 
other smaller animals furnished a plentiful supply of meat, while 
the stock of fish was practically inexhaustible. In 1655, we hear 
of the Salmon River, northeast of Oswego ; — " such is the rich- 
ness of this stream that it yields at all seasons various kinds of 
fish. In the spring, as soon as the snows melt, it is full of gold- 
colored fish; next come carp, and finally the achigen (black bass). 
. . . Then comes the brill, and at the end of May . . . sturgeon 
are killed .... All the rest of the year until winter, salmon 
furnishes food . . ,." 1 At Onondaga Lake, says a Jesuit mis- 
ses. Rel. XLII, 71; Cf. Jes. Rel., XLIII, 261. 



ENVIRONMENT OF THE IROQUOIS. 1 7 

sionary, " besides the fish caught at dift'erent seasons, eels are so 
abundant in the summer that a man can harpoon as many as one 
thousand in one night." 1 Multitudinous also were the birds that 
in spring flocked to the lakes and ponds of the Iroquois country. 
Nearly all of them were more or less suitable for food. Among 
them were cranes, pelicans, wild swans, ducks, geese and turkeys, 
pigeons, turtle doves, gulls, and loons. Near Seneca Lake, for 
instance, swans and bustards were abundant all through the 
winter, while in spring clouds of all sorts of wild fowl arrived 
from the South. " As to Onondaga Lake," says the Jesuit 
chronicler, '* turtle doves from all the country around flock 
thither toward spring, in so great numbers that they are caught 
in nets." 2 

A glance at the vegetable life of the Iroquois territory shows a 
correspondingly plentiful food-supply. The cultivated plants — 
maize, beans, squashes and melons — the Iroquois had brought 
with them from the Mississippi Valley. To these bases of sub- 
sistence, the nuts, roots, and fruits indigenous to the region 
formed a welcome adjunct. Nut-bearing trees — the hickory, pig- 
nut, butternut, chestnut, walnut and oak — were numerous. The 
sugar maple also supplied an important article of food in the 
syrup which was made from its sap. Edible and medicinal roots 
were also abundant. Among the fruit and berry products were 
wild raspberries, whortle-berries, strawberries, and cranberries. 
Wild grapes, sweet enough to be agreeable to the taste, grew in 
spots, where forest fires had occurred. The may-apple, the crab- 
apple, the paw-paw, and other wild fruits completed the list. 3 

In fine, the food utilities of the Iroquois country were numerous 
and valuable. Wild animals, especially deer, were plentiful, as 
were also many varieties of fish and birds. Cultivated plants, 
such as maize, beans and squashes flourished ; and of nuts, fruits 
and roots, there was no scarcity. 

Products available as raw materials were no less abundant than 
those useful as food. The skin of the deer, the bear, and the 

1 Jes. Rel. XLII, 95. 

2 Jes. Rel. XLII, 95. 

3 Loskiel, pp. 68 sq. Jes. Rel. XLIII, 257; XXVIII, III. 

2 



1 8 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

beaver, as well as those of smaller animals, provided all needed 
articles of clothing and most of the other coverings used by the 
Iroquois, while bones and sinews furnished material for various 
implements. Shells of mollusks formed a source of supply for 
tools and utensils. The Iroquois were also able to draw to a 
great extent upon the vegetable world for raw materials. The 
wood and bark of the forest trees offered a suitable and con- 
venient supply of material for their dwellings, and for many of 
their implements and utensils ; thus, ash, elm, fir, spruce, and 
cedar bark were all available as coverings for the wooden frames 
of their houses ; the wood of the white ash covered with the bark 
of the red elm made good canoes ; x and hickory wood was a useful 
material in the manufacture of snow shoes. From the vegetable 
kingdom came also several products employed in the textile in- 
dustry of the aborigines. Wild vines furnished ready-made ropes 
and cables. The fiber from the inner bark of the slippery elm 
and other trees, and also of the Dirca palustris or moosewood, a 
little shrub growing on the hillsides, offered a good material for 
the manufacture of cords and coarse threads. The wild hemp 
plant (Apocymtm cannabinum) was useful for the same purpose. 
Among the products of value in the manufacture of textiles were 
the reeds and cornhusks of which mats and other articles could 
be woven. Finally, there were several plants whose juices were 
useful as dyes. 

The mineral resources of their environment contained but few 
utilities for the Iroquois. Because of his ignorance of the art 
of smelting, copper, which could be hammered out cold, was 
about the only metal of use to the American Indian ; of this, 
there was very little to be found in New York, while access to 
the Lake Superior mines was cut off by intervening hostile tribes ; 
hence, before the coming of the Europeans, the Iroquois had no 
metal instruments. 2 Stone and clay suitable for pottery existed 
in considerable quantities in their country. The clay they utilized 
in the manufacture of their earthenware vessels, and of the local 

1 Not as good as the birch bark of the Northern Forest, however. 

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 55. " Metallic Instruments of 
the N. Y. Indians." 



ENVIRONMENT OE THE IROQUOIS. IQ 

horn-stone they made a few of their ruder articles. In general, 
however, they used stone much less than wood. The reasons arc 
not difficult to conjecture. In the first place, since they had no 
metal instruments, they would naturally prefer to utilize the softer 
and more easily worked material ; in the second place, supplies of 
wood were undoubtedly more accessible than stone would be for 
a relatively sedentary, semi-agricultural people like the Iroquois. 
Available stone would be hard to find, especially since the village 
would naturally avoid a stony site. On the other hand, land had 
to be cleared and wood cut in order to prepare the maize fields 
and procure fuel. Hence, the material for the manufacture of 
wooden articles was provided without extra trouble. Everything 
considered, it is not hard to understand why the Iroquois utilized 
wood as a raw material, rather than stone. 

To sum up ; — the home-country of the Iroquois may be de- 
scribed as a forest region, stocked with an abundant supply of 
wild animals, fish, nuts, fruits, and roots ; at the same time, it 
was a country of temperate climate, well-watered and fertile, with 
many open spaces suitable for maize-culture ; hence it was an 
environment favorable to the development of a hunting and fish- 
ing and semi-agricultural life. 

Similar features marked the environment of the cognate tribe 
of the Hurons. Their territory, the peninsula between Lake 
Huron and Lakes Erie and Ontario, was somewhat more open 
and suitable for agriculture than that of the Iroquois, and al- 
though the supply of game was scantier ; yet, on the other hand, 
there was even a greater abundance of fish than among the Iro- 
quois. Hence the Hurons would naturally devote themselves 
somewhat more to maize-culture and fishing, and less to hunting, 
than was the case among the Iroquois. In spite of such minor 
differences, however, the general similiarity between the previous 
history and the final environment of both Hurons and Iroquois 
justifies us in regarding them as essentially one people. 1 

'Jes. Rel. VIII, 115; XV, 153; X, 103; LIV, I5U XIII. n. 17, p. 255. 



CHAPTER II. 
The Productive Activities of the Iroquois. 

The main productive activities of the Iroquois were nut and 
fruit gathering, root grubbing, trapping, hunting, fishing, and 
agriculture. From the earliest days of their life in the Far West, 
they had depended upon fish and game, and upon the nuts and 
fruits to be found in their environment ; with maize they became 
acquainted in their journey across the continent; and in the 
favorable environment of the Eastern Forest, they gained support 
from all these sources. 

The food supply upon which primitive domestic economists 
chiefly depend was not neglected by the Iroquois. Root-grub- 
bing and nut and fruit gathering were a regular part of their 
yearly labor. The Senecas, for instance, depended to a con- 
siderable extent upon the nut crop. In 1669, writes one of the 
Jesuit fathers, an abundant harvest caused so great joy among 
them that " one sees everywhere only games, dances, and feasts." x 
Maple sugar making, also, was an important annual event, cele- 
brated with feasting. 2 

These lines of production, however, were distinctly subsidiary 
to the serious business of hunting and trapping, inasmuch as the 
Iroquois, for a great part of their subsistence, depended upon the 
useful animals and birds of their immediate environment, and 
even far outside of their own boundaries. The chief animals of 
the chase were the deer and the bear ; wild fowl and several 
varieties of small game, such as otters, martens, hares, and 
squirrels, were also hunted. The value of the beaver to the 
Iroquois hunter dates largely from the time of the coming of the 
Europeans and the beginning of the fur-trade ; before that time, 

'Jes. Rel. LIV, 97; cf. La Pothcrie, III, 20; Jes. Rel. LII, 23. 
2 Morgan, "League" (ed. 1901), II, 251; Lafitau, III, 140. 

20 



PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE IROQUOIS. 2 1 

the beaver was not so highly appreciated. 1 The hunting season 
was confined mainly to the winter months. During- the rest of 
the year only desultory trapping was done. The fall and spring 
were the seasons for the capture of wild fowl ; from January to 
May, during the hibernating period, was the best time for hunt- 
ing bears ; while the deer and beaver hunt was mainly an affair 
of the first four months of winter. 2 From October until Jan- 
uary, parties small and large scattered in all directions in search 
of the desired game. Seneca expeditions went to Niagara for 
the beaver hunt, or southward to the Chemung River for deer 
and other game. They also penetrated by way of the Alleghany 
into Ohio, a favorite hunting ground of all the Iroquois. The 
Cayugas found a wealth of game in the valley of the Susque- 
hanna, in fact, all over Pennsylvania. They, with bands from the 
other Iroquois tribes, often roamed as far south as the Potomac 
in search of deer and bear. Onondaga parties also frequented 
the Susquehanna region, descending thither by way of the Che- 
mung River. Other bands, turning northward, went into Can- 
ada. The Oneidas descended the Unadilla, or went north into 
the region watered by the Black River. The Mohawks hunted 
in the Adirondacks, or near the head waters of the Delaware and 
Susquehanna. 3 About midwinter, all these scattered groups came 
back to their homes, bringing with them the supplies of meat left 
over from the winter's consumption. After this there was little 
regular work until with the spring came the beginning of the 
fishing season. 

As hunting was a winter occupation, so fishing formed one of 
the main activities of the summer months. From the middle of 
March until the beginning of winter and the deer-hunting season, 
fishing of one kind or another was always going on. The varie- 
ties of fish taken were many, ranging from the fresh water clam 4 
up to sturgeon large enough to be killed with a hatchet. The 
salmon and eel fisheries were the most productive. The former 

1 Beanchamp, " Iroquois Trail," p. 91. 

5 Loskiel, p. 80. 

3 Morgan, " League," 346. 

*Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 41, p. 462. 



22 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

furnished food to the village of Onondaga throughout the sum- 
mer. Eels, too, were caught during the whole season. Fishing 
was even more extensively carried on by the Hurons than by the 
Five Nations, the former doing more or less of it all through the 
year. 1 

Besides hunting and fishing, the Iroquois carried on another 
and more developed form of activity, namely, agriculture. 
Forest hunting, as a rule, demanded little other exertion than 
that immediately expended in the pursuit and slaughter of the 
game ; agriculture, on the other hand, involved a much longer 
and more complicated series of operations. The maize upon 
which the Iroquois largely depended was, on account of the 
great size of the plant and of its grain, as well as its large returns, 
the most suitable of all cereals for cultivation by slightly advanced 
peoples ; 2 nevertheless, the labor necessitated by maize culture 
called for a greater amount of patience and forethought, and 
meant a higher degree of economic development, than was pos- 
sible among a people depending for subsistence solely upon forest 
hunting and fishing. The production of one crop of maize in- 
volved four principal stages of procedure, — clearing the ground, 
planting, cultivating, and harvesting. From beginning to end, 
the process was the work of a whole summer. Perhaps, if the 
task of clearing were especially difficult, the first crop taken from 
a field might be the product of several years' labor. In the open 
places along the streams the question of clearing did not have to 
be taken into account. 3 These sites were consequently much 
sought after. But the necessity of choosing a place compara- 
tively easy to defend against hostile attacks, and other reasons, 
often compelled the selection of a heavily wooded spot as the site 
for a village. In such a case, the deforesting of land for corn- 
fields was sometimes a matter of years. 4 Furthermore, the ex- 

l Jes. Rel. XLIII, 261; XLII, 73; XXXIX, 215; LIV, 151. 

2 Payne, " History of America," I, 354 sq. 

8 Ga-o-sai-gao, for instance, an important Seneca Village, was situated 
in the middle of an opening of about 2,000 acres, on Honeoye Creek. 
Morgan, "League" (ed. 1901), II, 210; cf. Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. 
Bui., No. 32, p. 29. 

4 Lafitau, II, 109; Greenhalgh, Doc. Hist. N. Y., I, 12. 



PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE IROQUOIS. 27, 

tensive agricultural methods of the Iroquois and the consequent 
frequent migrations of the village necessitated the repetition of 
the task of clearing about every ten or twelve years. 1 The ground 
once cleared, the planting followed. Maize, beans, pumpkins, 
and melons were the chief crops. The first two were sown in 
the same field, the stalks of the maize serving as supports for the 
bean vines. Pumpkins and melons were cultivated in gardens 
by themselves. Sunflowers and tobacco were also grown to a 
limited extent. Throughout the summer, careful cultivation of 
these crops was kept up until finally, amid rejoicing and festivity, 
the harvest was gathered in and the agricultural labors of the 
year Avere ended. Maize culture involved more prolonged and 
systematic effort than deer-hunting could possibly demand ; con- 
sequently, maize-culture developed a more advanced manner of 
life than was to be found in the case of purely hunting tribes : 
hence, among a people like the Iroquois, where both manners of 
production existed, there was more or less conflict between agri- 
cultural and hunting ideals. Eventually the relative importance 
of the two as a means of assuring the economic welfare of the 
community decided the outcome of the struggle. 

While there is no doubt that hunting and fishing occupied a 
position subordinate to agriculture in the Iroquois' economic sys- 
tem, it would certainly be a mistake to imagine that the former 
pursuits were of slight importance in the life of these tribes. 
Although the scarcity of game in the Huron territories caused 
the Hurons to do but little hunting, 2 the activities of the Iroquois 
in this direction were very considerable. Among the Oneidas 
hunting was so productive an occupation that, according to the 
Jesuit Relation, " the fate of the women depends upon their hus- 
bands, who supply them with food, and clothes." 3 With both 
the Hurons and Iroquois, fishing formed no small part of the 
year's labor. At certain seasons whole communities would aban- 
don their houses and go fishing, sometimes remaining away for 

»Jes. Rel. XV, 153. 

2 Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 245.— " The Hurons . . . hunt only for pleasure 
or on extraordinary occasions." 
3 Jes. Rel., LVII, 123. 



24 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

weeks. The Jesuit Relation speaks of a camp, " where there 
were about four hundred savages who had erected their cabins 
there for fishing.'' 1 In another Relation, an instance is given 
where " the scarcity of seasoning for giving some taste to the 
Turkish wheat boiled in water obliges a large part of the vil- 
lagers to go in quest of fish at a place ten leagues from here." 2 
Evidently, the Iroquois and Hurons depended to a considerable ex- 
tent for subsistence upon the products of their hunting and fishing. 

Nevertheless, it seems certain that for the greater part of their 
food supply they looked to their maize fields. The exact extent 
of this dependence as over against that placed upon hunting and 
fishing, differed with the locality in which each group found 
itself. It was greater among the Hurons than among the Iro- 
quois, and among the Cayugas than the Senecas — the more agri- 
cultural people in each case living in the less densely forested 
environment. 3 

In general we may conclude that maize rather than meat, 
had come, in the course of time, to be the chief basis of sub- 
sistence of all the Iroquois tribes. The comparatively perma- 
nent nature of their villages, and the sites chosen for them, as 
well as the amount of cultivated land around or near them, are 
sufficient proof of the statement. The village, as Ave have seen, 
was not moved oftener than once in a dozen or more years, and 
during that time a part of the inhabitants was generally to be 
found in residence there. Others might go on the periodical 
hunting and fishing expeditions, and the warriors when engaged 
in some distant raid might be absent for years at a time ; never- 

JJes. Rel, XXVI, 41. 

«Jes. Rel., LIII, 243; cf. Jes. Rel., XV, 113, 125; XIX, 87; LIV, 151; 
LII, 175; LIV, 81. 

3 Hiawatha at the formation of the confederacy says in addressing the 
different tribes : — " And you (the Cayugas) the people who live in the 
open country, and possess much wisdom, shall be the fifth nation, because 
you understand better the art of raising corn and beans, and making 
houses." But to the Senecas he says, " You, whose dwelling is in the 
dark forest, and whose home is everywhere, shall be the fourth nation, 
because of your superior cunning in hunting." Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. 
Tribes," III, 317. 



PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE IROQUOIS. 25 

theless, all regarded the home village as their permanent head- 
quarters, and returned to it when the expedition was over. Not 
only the permanence of the settlements, but also their situation, 
is evidence of the agricultural bent of their inhabitants. In 
choosing a site, the Iroquois looked primarily for a spot favor- 
able to agriculture. Naturally, any site chosen must not be 
too much exposed to attack by hostile war parties; but, "in 
any event, due regard was had to the soil. . . . fishing and bunt- 
ing advantages determined their camps, but their towns bad 
regard to the culture of the fields. A fertile soil, easily worked, 
but in a secure situation, was one of the first requisites. Of 
course water must always be near." 1 The amount of land cul- 
tivated relative to the size of the town is, again, proof that the 
Iroquois were becoming an agricultural rather than a hunting 
people. A village field often extended over an area of several 
hundred acres, in which enough corn was raised in one season 
to support the whole population, and to lay aside a large surplus. 
Greenhalgh says that in 1677 Onondaga had cornfields extending 
for two miles on each side of the town. Besides feeding herself, 
she had enough to supply her neighbors, the Oneidas, who had 
moved into a new location and were not yet able to prepare all 
the land they needed. 2 Of all the other towns, Greenhalgh's in- 
variable assertion is that " they have abundance of Corne." The 
extent of cultivation may be estimated from the great quantities of 
corn destroyed by the French and American expeditions against 
the Iroquois. The former in 1687 destroyed four Seneca villages, 
and consumed nearly a week in cutting down the adjacent fields 
of corn. Even then the Senecas were not left to starve ; for the 
other Iroquois nations were well able to supply them from their 
surplus. 3 The Hurons were even more agricultural in habit 

1 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 32, p. 23. 

2 Greenhalgh, Doc. Hist. N. Y., I, 12. — " Onondaga is situate upon a 
hill that is very large, the banke on each side extending itself at least 
two miles, all cleared land, whereon the corne is planted. . . . They plant 
abundance of corne, which they sell to the Onyades. The Onondagas are 
said to be about three hundred and fifty fighting men." 

s Carr, " Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, pp. 513 sq. 



26 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

than the Iroquois. The former cultivated corn in such quantities 
that they were able to store up a surplus large enough to support 
them for three or four years, and to exchange for skins with the 
wild hunting tribes of the north. Corn was, in fact, " the chief 
of their riches." 1 

From the standpoint of their productive activities, then, the 
Iroquois may be said to have been upon a transitional stage, corre- 
sponding to the nature of their environment. In their hunting 
life they resembled the tribes of the northern forest ; in so far 
as they depended for subsistence upon maize culture, their manner 
of production resembled that of the nations far to the south of 
them ; in the process of evolution from the hunting to the agri- 
cultural manner of production, however, they had gone more 
than half way. 

Besides the primary productive activities of which we have 
been speaking, the Iroquois naturally carried on a certain amount 
of manufacturing. During the time of comparative leisure 
toward the end of the winter, many of the raw materials pro- 
duced during the hunting season were worked up into finished 
articles. Other materials, procured at various times, were also 
made into commodities of different sorts ; thus, skins were shaped 
into garments and coverings, wood and bark were cut and pre- 
pared for use in various ways, textiles were woven out of bark 
and hemp fiber, and earthenware vessels were molded. All these 
processes will be spoken of in detail in a subsequent section. 

1 Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 514; Jes. Rel. XXIX, 247 — 
" The Indian corn which is the chief of their riches." 



CHAPTER III. 
Organization of Producers. 

Two distinct sorts of production prevailed among the Iroquois. 
On the one hand, were grouped root grubbing, nut and fruit 
gathering, trapping, hunting, and fishing; on the other hand, 
stood agriculture. The former activities ordinarily result in the 
domestic or village economy, with only an occasional appearance 
of the men's clan : the latter lead to a sedentary life, entirely gov- 
erned by the clan principle. What, then, was the effect of these 
conflicting conditions upon the economic methods of the Iroquois ? 
In other words, who were the producers ; into what classes were 
they divided ; what was the internal organization of each class ; 
and finally, which class, all things considered, occupied the posi- 
tion of greatest importance in the economic life of the Iroquois? 

It seems almost unnecessary to say that the whole population, 
men and women, had a share in production. Neither hunting, 
fishing, nor agriculture, as it was carried on by the Iroquois, 
allowed the permanent appropriation of the sources of supply by 
any individual or group to the detriment of any others who were 
able and willing to work. Consequently, no one could live ex- 
clusively on the product of another's labor, and all must exert 
themselves to make their own living. 

There was, nevertheless, among the Iroquois, as among all 
primitive peoples, a sexual division of labor — that is to say. 
certain lines of production were pursued chiefly or entirely by 
the men ; others by the women of the community. The Iroquois 
men occupied themselves mainly in hunting, fishing, trading, 
and making war; the women devoted themselves to agriculture, 
nut, fruit, and root gathering, and housekeeping: the work of 
manufacturing the means of production and articles of consump- 
tion, the men and women divided pretty evenly between them. 
" The part of the men," says the Jesuit Relation of 1652-3, " is 

27 



28 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

only war, hunting, fishing, trade in various countries and the 
preparation of the things thereto necessary ; as, offensive and 
defensive weapons, boats, oars and snowshoes." 1 The men, 
furthermore, seem to have made most of the instruments of pro- 
duction ; for besides their own implements and weapons, they 
also made the agricultural tools used by the women. 2 It was 
their duty, also, to mark out and clear the site for the village, 3 
and to do all the heavy work involved in building the houses and 
the palisade. In addition, the men made no small part of the 
other finished articles of consumption usually found in an Iroquois 
village. It was their business to cut all the larger-sized fire- 
wood, 4 to make the large bark barrels and boxes used for keeping 
stores of food, and the wooden plates and spoons needed in the 
household. 5 Just how much they helped in agriculture is hard 
to determine. Mr. Carr says that among the Hurons " the men 
not only habitually cleared the ground — no small undertaking in 
a heavily timbered region — but they frequently took part in what 
is technically known as working the crop, and also aided in the 
labors of the harvest field. This may not have been a part of 
their duty, but we have the authority of Charlevoix for saying 
that when asked to aid in gathering the crop, they did not scorn 
to lend a helping hand." 6 Among the Iroquois the men did 
decidedly less agricultural work than among the Hurons ; but 
even here evidence goes to show that they cleared the fields and 
burnt them over in preparation for the sowing. 7 La Potherie 

l Jes. Rel. XXXVIII, 255. 
2 Sagard, 259; Jes. Rel. XIII, 265; XXIII, 55. 

La Potherie, III, 18-19 — "L'homme fait des instruments de labourage 
qui sont de bois." 

3 Lafitau, II, 109 — " Ce sont les homines par toute l'Amerique qui sont 
charges de marquer les champs, et d'en abbatre les gros arbres." 

La Potherie, III, 18-19 — " Dans les champs l'homme abat les arbres, 
et les ebranle. L'emploi de l'homme dans le bois l'hiver est de faire 
la cabane." 

4 Lafitau, II, 109. 

5 Boucher, " Histoire Veritable," p. 101. 

6 Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 512. 

Cf. Perrot, pp. 106, 181; Jes. Rel., XV, 79; XXXVII, 115. 

7 La Potherie, III, 18 — " C'est aux hommes a bruler les champs . . . 
et ils brulent les racines des herbes pour semer ensuite." 



ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCERS. 20, 

says that " it is the men's business to burn over the fields." He 
tells us, too, that they fenced in the gardens and prepared the 
bundles of corn for drying. In regard to the latter part of this 
statement, Lafitau supports him. 1 Any further help, the men of 
the Five Nations, always occupied with war and with hunting, 
do not seem to have offered to their women. 2 It should be noted, 
however, that no matter how much or how little the Iroquois or 
Huron warrior worked in the field, he always acted merely as an 
assistant, and not as a director or owner. He seems to have 
considered agriculture a pursuit quite beneath his dignity : the 
real sphere of his activities, he regarded as confined, for the most 
part, to war, hunting, fishing, and trade. 

On the other hand, the great importance of the Iroquois woman 
as a producer lay in her activity as an agriculturist. 3 Although 
the men may have cleared the fields, the women sowed, cultivated, 
and harvested the crop. Even among the Hurons it was the 
women upon whom the responsibility fell. " Without wives," 
says a Huron to Le Jeune, " we are reduced to a wretched life, 
seeing that it is the women in our country who sow, plant, and 
cultivate the land, and prepare food for their husbands." 4 The 
Five Nations depended to an even greater extent upon their 
women to do the field work. " The women," says La Potherie. 
" sow, harvest and dry the Indian corn .... A man does not 
wish to marry any but a good worker." 5 Besides their agricul- 
tural labors, they attended to the gathering of the nuts, fruits and 
roots, which formed so important a part of the Iroquois food 
supply ; 6 and they contributed, also, to the stock of implements to 
be used in production, by making traps for catching small ani- 

1 Lafitau, II, 78. 

*Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, pp. 516 sq. 

"Lawson, "Carolina," p. 188; Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 191; 
Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 255. 

*Jes. Rel., XIV, 235. 

5 La Potherie, III, 19-20; Colden, "Hist. Five Nations" (London, 1747), 
p. 13 — " The Indian women plant the corn and labor it in every respect 
till it is brought to the table." 

8 La Potherie, III, 19-20 — " Elles vont chercher les fruits dans les cam- 
pagnes . . . elles font des Trapes pour prendre les martes." 



30 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

mals. 2 Furthermore, they manufactured many of the household 
utensils and furnishings. All the pottery was made by the 
women, 1 as were also the wooden mortars in which corn was 
crushed. 2 Textile industries were largely in their hands, from 
the gathering of the raw material to its final weaving into mats, 
baskets, etc. 3 In the making of clothing, also, the women took 
the chief part. Finally, to quote from the Jesuit Relation, " it is 
the woman who bears the burden of the house, cuts and carries the 
fire-wood, does the cooking, and loads herself on the journeys 
with provisions, etc., for the husband." 4 Bearing the burden of 
the house, and doing the cooking, was indeed no light task. It 
involved the making of trips into the winter woods, sometimes 
for a distance of many miles, to bring back the venison that the 
men had killed ; 5 it meant the laborious smoking and drying of 
the meat and fish, 6 and the preparation of various things to be 
used in cooking. Evidently there was among the Iroquois a very 
distinct division of labor along sexual lines, the men acting chiefly 
as hunters and warriors, the women as agriculturists. Are we 
justified, however, in speaking of the men as if they did their work 
in cooperation with one another, and of the women as if they too 
formed a united production group? 

Undoubtedly there were occasional instances in Iroquois life in 
which production seems to have been a purely individual and 
domestic affair. Snaring deer and other game in summer, when 
the animals are not gregarious and therefore cannot be hunted 
by large parties, was naturally done by each man for himself. 
Even in the regular hunting season, small family parties might 
wander off in the woods by themselves. Here and there we even 
find isolated women, each cultivating her own little plot of ground. 

J Sagard, pp. 275-276; Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 81. 

2 La Potherie, III, 19-20. 

3 Jes. Rel., XIII, 265 ; XXIII, 55 ; Sagard, pp. 276-277. 

*Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 255; Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," in, 191; 
Jes. Rel., LXIII, 219. 

5 Jes. Rel., LI, 129 — "The women do hardly anything else all the win- 
ter but go and get the flesh of the deer or of the moose that the men 
have killed, sometimes fifty leagues away from the village." 

6 Jes. Rel., LVII, 267. 



ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCERS. 3 I 

The Abbe de Galline ran across one such case. 1 " On the eighth 
of August," he says, " we came to an island where a savage from 
the Seneca tribe has made a sort of country house whither he 
retires in summer to consume with his family some Indian corn 
and pumpkins that he raises there every year. He is so well 
hidden that unless one knew the place, one would have difficulty 
in finding it/' This seems to be a real case of domestic economy. 

In spite of such occasional exceptions the clan system seems to 
have been pretty well developed among the Iroquois and Hurons. 
" Indian habits and modes of life," says Mr. Morgan, " divided 
the people socially into two great classes, male and female. The 
male sought the conversation and society of the male, and they 
went forth together for amusement, or for the severer duties of 
life. In the same manner the female sought the companionship 
of her own sex." 2 Each group was in reality an organized body 
of individuals working in harmony. 

As an organized body of workers, the women of each gens 
formed a distinct agricultural corporation. The fact has been 
pointed out that family groups, even in the domestic economy, 
are likely to remain together as long as their food-supply permits ; 
also, that the aggregation of families is the very essence of the 
village economy. Among the Iroquois, however, the positive 
need of cooperation in production created out of each of these 
merely friendly aggregations a single united body, bound together 
by the strong ties of economic interest. Thus the women of an 
ordinary Iroquois village were organized in from three to eight 
clans, coincident with the feminine portions of the gentes. Sim- 
ilar conditions prevailed among the Hurons. " Each gens," says 
Major Powell, " has a right to the services of all its women in 
the cultivation of the soil." 3 Mary Jemison, the white woman 
brought up by the Iroquois, gives a detailed account of their 
methods. " In order to expedite their business," she says, " and 
at the same time enjoy each others' company, they all work to- 

1 Margry, I, 123. Cf. Jes. Rel., LI I, 165. 

* Morgan, " League," 323. 

3 Powell, Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, " Wyandot Gov't," p. 65. 



32 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

gether in one field, or at whatever job they may have on hand. 
In the spring they choose an old active squaw to be their driver 
and overseer when at labor for the ensuing year. She accepts 
the honor, and they consider themselves bound to obey her. 
" When the time for planting arrives and the soil is prepared, 
the squaws are assembled in the morning, and conducted into a 
field, where each plants one row. They then go into the next 
field and plant one across, and so on till they have gone through 
the tribe (gens). If any remains to be planted, they again com- 
mence where they did at first in the same field, and so keep on 
till the whole is finished." 1 A similar account of the method of 
field-work practiced by the Iroquois women is given by Lafitau. 2 
According to his statements, the weeding and cultivation of each 
plot during the summer was attended to by the individual pos- 
sessors. The harvest operations, however, were carried on in 
the same way as the planting. " There is a time appointed for 
it (the harvest) when they all work together in common." 

But the activities of the women's clan, as such, were not 
strictly limited to agricultural operations. In getting fire-wood 
the women employed cooperative methods. Among the Iro- 
quois, according to Mary Jemison, " each squaw cuts her own 
wood, but it is all brought to the house under the direction of 
the overseer." " Among the Hurons/' says Sagard, " all the 
women aid one another to make this provision of wood, which is 
done in the months of March and April, and with this order, in 
a little while each household is furnished with what is necessary." 3 
In the same way, other occupations which permitted of it were 
carried on by the women's clans, rather than by individuals work- 
ing separately. " By this rule," concludes Mary Jemison's ac- 
count, " they perform their labor of every kind, and every jealousy 
of one having done more or less than another is effectually 
avoided." 

Turning now to the men's part in production, we find that they, 
too, tended to work according to the cooperative plan. It is true 

*Life of Mary Jemison, pp. 70-71. 

2 Lafitau, II, 75 sq. Cf. Jes. Rel., XXVI, 225. 

3 Sagard, 249; cf. Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 18, p. 12. 



ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCERS. 33 

that forest hunting, pure and simple, usually results in the 
domestic, or at most, the village economy, rather than in the 
clan. Since the chief sources of food-supply roam the woods 
singly, or in small groups, society must be modelled after the 
same pattern ; hence the Algonquins of the Northern Forest often 
hunted alone or in small bands of three or four hunters with their 
families. The clan organization appeared only occasionally, as 
the result of the necessity of defense. The Iroquois men were 
also forest hunters : nevertheless, there were reasons why they 
tended to organize in clans. In the first place, the peaceful agri- 
cultural settlements localized by the women, needed constant 
protection from marauders ; this was the primary reason for the 
existence of the men's clan, an organization further strengthened 
by never-ending offensive campaigns : in the second place, game 
was plentiful in the Iroquois country, and the region itself was a 
park-like one ; hence cooperative hunting by large parties of men 
paid better than could have been the case among the Algonquins 
in the denser and colder forest of the North. As a consequence, 
the military clan was a necessity. The hunting clan, on the other 
hand, was a possibility, rendered practicable by the nature of the 
environment and by the fact that the Iroquois men were already 
organized for purposes of warfare. 

Primarily, the men's clan was coincident with the male portion 
of the gens. The Iroquois gens was a body of kindred organized 
into two clans mutually dependent upon each other for certain 
services. Similarly, among the Hurons, " each gens," according to 
Major Powell, " had the right to the service of all the male mem- 
bers in avenging wrongs," 1 just as it had the right to the service 
of its female members in the cultivation of the fields. As a gen- 
eral thing, however, all the warriors' clans in each village acted 
as one body as far as such cooperation was advantageous. The 
Jesuit Relation mentions one case where a band of women were 
assailed as they were going out to their fields. At their first 
cries, all the warriors in the village rushed to their rescue.- At 

l Eth. Rep., 1870-1880, "Wyandot Gov't." p. 65. Cf. Morgan. ' 
Soc," p. 71; Jes. Rel., XXXIX, 203. 
2 Jes. Rel., XXIX, 249. 
3 



34 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

another time, when a Huron village was attacked, the women fled, 
while the men — about one hundred warriors — united their forces 
and stayed behind to fight. In a word, to be a good warrior, and 
to aid in the preservation of his gens and his village was the 
chief object in the life of the Iroquois male. 1 To this end he was 
trained from his early childhood ; " . . . infantile bands, armed 
with hatchets and guns which they can hardly carry . . . spread 
fear and horror everywhere," says the Jesuit Relation. 2 All 
able-bodied males between twenty and fifty years were regarded 
as warriors. 3 To shirk the duty meant disgrace, while to be a 
good warrior was of all things most honorable. To keep up the 
organization long expeditions were undertaken, lasting sometimes 
for months and even years. 4 At any time the warriors might be 
called upon to fall into line and fight, either as a whole or merely 
in volunteer bands of all sizes, bound upon errands of aggression 
or vengeance. Cooperation within these bands was of the closest 
sort. 5 Each warrior or group of warriors had some special duty 
to fulfill under the direction of the leader. In an expedition, 
some would hunt and supply meat for the troop, others would 
act as scouts, while still others would paddle the canoes and care 
for the rolls of bark out of which temporary shelters were made. 
All would meet at night in an appointed place. There, some 
would set up the tents, and others would cook the food. On 
approaching the enemy's country, the whole troop marched single 
file, covering their track with leaves. Though most Indian fight- 
ing was carried on in the woods, each warrior sheltering himself 
as best he could behind a tree or rock, nevertheless the Iroquois 

1 Jes. Rel., X, 225 ; XLI, 107 ; " Life of Mary Jemison," p. 187 ; School- 
craft, "Notes on the Iroquois," pp. 150 sq. ; Lafitau, II, 162 sq. 

2 Jes. Rel., XLIII, 263-265. 

3 La Hontan, " Voyages," II, 175 — " A 1'age de 20 ans, ils commencent 
a endosser le harnois, et le quittent a leur cinquantieme annee. S'ils 
portent les armes plutot on plus tard ce n'est que pour marauder, mais 
ils ne sont point compris dans le nombre des guerriers." 

Cf. Schoolcraft, " Notes on Iroquois," p. 83. 

4 Chadwick, " People of the Longhouse," p. 61 ; Jes. Rel., XIV, 39 — " A 
sufficient garrison was left in the village." 

5 Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," IV, 200; Lafitau, II, 162 sq. 



ORGANIZATION OF TRODUCERS. 35 

often planned and followed ont regular concerted evolutions in 
which each warrior had his fixed place. In bringing or sustain- 
ing a siege, the Iroquois soldiers worked together with the same 
foresight and careful planning. 1 We may imagine that the fol- 
lowing quotation describes the siege of a Huron town by the 
Iroquois. " The siege of places where they find resistance," says 
Lafitau, " is again a proof that they have rules of an art of war, 
where skill and industry go hand in hand with force and the most 
intrepid bravery. If the besiegers make the most incredible 
efforts to surprise the vigilance of the besieged and to conquer all 
the obstacles that oppose them, the latter omit nothing which 
could serve them in making a good defense ; feints, false attacks, 
vigorous and unforeseen sorties, ambushes, surprises, — every- 
thing is employed by both sides in war. But there are few sieges 
of long duration. The palisades being only of wood, and the 
cabins of bark, in vain do the besieged stock their ramparts with 
stones, beams and water, in vain do they repulse their assailants 
with a hail of arrows ; the latter bring ruin to them with flaming 
arrows, a small number of which suffices, if the wind is favorable, 
to reduce the whole village to ashes. They make their approach 
fearlessly with coverings made of boards which they carry before 
them, and thanks to which they advance to the foot of the palisade 
which they break down with their axes or with fire. Or, they may 
make a counter-palisade, which serves them as a shield and as 
ladders, giving them the means of scaling the enemies' entrench- 
ment and making themselves masters of it." 

The clan spirit, brought about by this kind of cooperative 
activity, entirely overshadowed all othern motives. Family affec- 
tion was as nothing before it. Thus Loskiel tells us : 2 " When 
the children and other kindred go to meet the father of a family 
after a long absence, he passes them with a haughty air, never 
returns their salutation, nor asks how his children do ; for cir- 
cumstances relating to his own family and kinsmen seem indif- 
ferent to him in time of war." Mr. Morgan 3 furnishes similar 
evidence. He says that the tie between father and children was 

1 Jes. Rel., XL, 103; Lafitau, II, 252-253. 

: Loskiel, p. 59. 

3 Morgan, " League," p. 325. 



36 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

very slight ; " but when his sons grew up to maturity he became 
more attached to them, making them his companions in the hunt 
and upon the war-path." 

It seems only natural that men in whose minds warfare had 
already cultivated the clan idea were inclined as far as possible 
to employ the same principle in everything they did ; hence, even 
in the village, the men's clans as such carried on a certain amount 
of direct production. According to Lafitau, when a lodge is to 
be erected, " the youth of the village are invited, a feast is given 
to encourage them, and in less than a couple of days the whole 
work is done." 1 Then, too, the men must have cooperated in 
clearing the land for the village ; they certainly did so in the work 
of fortifying the town. 2 

We are not surprised, therefore, upon considering their military 
habits, and the favorable nature of their environment, to hear that 
the Iroquois tended to employ the clan method even in their hunt- 
ing. 3 An army on the march was, as we have seen, often at the 
same time a hunting party, and vice versa} But organized com- 
panies were also in the habit of forming purely for hunting pur- 
poses. Mr. Morgan describes a favorite method of securing 
game : "... A large party of hunters was formed and a brush 
fence was built in the shape of the letter V, two or three miles in 
length on each side. The woods were then fired in the rear at 
some miles distant, so as to drive the deer toward the opening, 
into which they were guided by parties stationed upon either 
side. They followed the fence down to the angle, where the 

1 Lafitau, II, 11. 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 203. 

3 LaHontan, " Voyages," II, 93 — " Les Iroquois sont plus grands, plus 
vaillants, et plus rusez que les autres peuples, mais moins agiles et moins 
adroits, tant a la guerre qu' a la chasse, ou ils ne vont jamais qu'en grand 
nombre." 

Cf. Perrot. p. 54; Loskiel, pp. 78-79; Jes. Rel., XII, 273. 

1 Jes. Rel., XXIV, 123; Jes. Rel., LIV, 73,—" The ideas of all these tribes 
prompt them to the pursuit of nothing but hunting and warfare. Among 
them are seen only parties of twenty, thirty, or fifty men, of a hundred or 
sometimes two hundred; rarely do they go to the number of a thousand 
in a single band. These bands are divided, to go some in quest of men, 
and others in quest of beasts." 



ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCERS. 37 

arrows of the unseen hunters soon brought them down one after 
the other. Sometimes a hundred were thus taken at one time." ' 
These cooperating groups might be composed of men alone, as 
for instance, when the young men went out from the village for 
a day or two at a time ; or they might be accompanied by women 
and children. The latter was usual during the long winter hunt. - 
In the latter case the women did not go as a clan, but merely as 
dependents of individual members of the men's organization. 
Thus, while in the productive life of the village the men's clan as 
the garrison played a part somewhat subordinate to that taken by 
the women's clan, during the hunting expedition the situation 
was reversed. Here control of the access to the source of supply, 
as well as the defense of the group, was in the hands of the men's 
clan, and consequently the women's organization entirely dis- 
integrated. 

The same thing occurred in the fishing season. Wherever 
cooperation was advantageous, the men worked according to that 
method, while the women acted in a subordinate capacity. 3 More 
or less fishing was always carried on in conjunction with hunting, 4 
but there w r ere also many large and lengthy expeditions which 
had fishing as their sole purpose. 5 Sometimes as many as three 
hundred to four hundred would go together and pitch their tem- 
porary camps on the same spot. Between the male members of 
such parties considerable cooperation would spring up. Among 
the Hurons seine-fishing was carried on by large parties, working 
harmoniously together. 6 Everywhere the building and use of 
weirs and hurdles involved considerable cooperation. 7 Loskiel 
mentions a case of the sort. A large net, made of a rope of wild 

'Morgan, "League." p. 345. 

2 Jes. Rel., LIV, 117; LVII, 261; LVIII, 83; LV, 253, 255, 269; XXXT, 
71; XXXIII, 83; XXXIV, 87. 

3 Jes. Rel., LVII, 267. 

4 Loskiel, p. 94 — " The Indians always carry hooks and small harpoons 
with them, whenever they are on a hunting party." 

5 Jes. Rel., XXXIX, 215; XV, 113, 125; XIX, 87; LIII, 243; XXVI, 41 J 
LII, 175; LIV, 81. 

6 Jes. Rel., XVII, 197. 

7 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 197. 



38 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

vine with a fringe of branches about six feet long, was used to 
sweep a stream ; some members of the party walking along each 
bank held the ends of the wild-vine rope, and others supported 
the middle with wooden forks ; at the weir, men standing on each 
side of the central opening, with poles and shouts drove the fish 
into a large perforated box ; then other Indians stationed in canoes 
on each side took out the fish. Sometimes by this method more 
than one thousand were caught in half a day. 1 

The Iroquois method of production, then, was a double one. 
In the village, control of the surplus was shared between the 
men's and the women's clans — the latter carrying on most of the 
work of production ; the former acting singly or collectively as 
a military guard. In the war and hunting expeditions, the 
women's clan entirely disappeared ; yet in the general life of the 
community, the latter occupied the more important place. The 
reasons were two: in the first place, agriculture, the branch of 
production controlled by the women's clan, was becoming the 
chief dependence of the whole nation — more and more as the years 
went on, the Iroquois took on the characteristics of sedentary 
villagers living mainly on the produce of their cornfields ; in the 
second place, the very nature of the work of the two clans gave 
the women's organization a decided advantage ; fishing and hunt- 
ing often did not allow extensive cooperation ; hence, even in the 
hunting season, the men's clan economy might at any time give 
way before conditions demanding the adoption of the village or 
domestic system. Warfare, of course, absolutely demanded co- 
operation ; nevertheless, it permitted great variations in the size 
and personnel of the band. In theory, the men of each gens 
formed a clan whose chief duty was the protection of its sister 
clan and of itself ; in practice the clan was composed of rather 
unstable elements, the different objects to be accomplished de- 
termining in each case the number and make-up of the group. 
Often a small expedition might be made up of members of several 
different gentes. The women's clan, on the other hand, always 
presented an unchanged front. It had a definite task to perform, 
the magnitude of which did not vary much from year to year, 

1 Loskiel, p. 95; cf. Beauchamp, "Iroquois Trail," p. 92. 



ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCERS. 39 

and in which cooperation was always advantageous; every sum- 
mer, the same amount of work, done upon the same spot, resulted 
in about the same product as in the year before: hence the female 
clan need never vary in membership or size ; neither must it 
wander from place to place. It would be no wonder, therefore, 
if in regard to its influence upon the general character of the 
community, the men's clan should tend to occupy a position sub- 
ordinate to that held by their sister organization. 

Economic conditions led to the organization of the Iroquois 
into clans : for similar reasons these smaller bodies were at the 
same time united in one large body, namely, the Tribe. The 
main motive for tribal organization was the necessity of defense. 
For this purpose, the tribe possessed the right to the services of 
all its male members. The actual strength of the army varied 
with circumstances. In times of peace the tribe tended to disin- 
tegrate and make scattered settlements, generally with some one 
gens predominating in each. In seasons of disturbance and 
alarm, there was likely to be only one great village in which the 
separate life of the gentes was merged in that of the whole. Once 
brought together by the necessity of close cooperation in defense, 
the tribal organization was strengthened by various other factors. 
The propitiation of forces controlling the weather was a strong 
bond of union, often in itself an effectual motive for combination. 
When any one was drowned or frozen to death, the Hurons be- 
lieved that the sky was angry and instituted a series of sacrifices 
and feasts. According to the Jesuit Relation, " A gathering of 
the neighboring villages takes place, many feasts are made, and 
no presents are spared, as it is a matter in which the whole 
country is interested." 1 A similar effect was caused by the neces- 
sity of common action to ward off epidemics. In such cases 
representatives of the warriors would feast together, and their 
example would be followed by the representatives of the women, 
some from each clan. 2 Again, there was the constant danger of 

l Jes. Rel.. X, 163. 

2 Jes. Rel., XIII, 237; cf. Jes. Rel., X, 219 — "Here you cannot insult any 
one of them without the whole country resenting it, and taking up the 
quarrel against you, and even against an entire village." 



40 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

a fire in which the whole village might be destroyed. Every 
inhabitant, at such a crisis, was de facto a member of the fire- 
brigade. All these motives combined to cause a federation of the 
clans, and an organization of economic life from the point of view 
of the tribe. 

The formation of the Iroquois into clans and tribes was the 
result of their primitive struggle for economic prosperity. Their 
organization into a confederacy of tribes, though an affair of 
much later date, had similar reasons for being. An understand- 
ing of some sort was indeed to be expected between tribes living 
next door to each other in a region marked off as a distinct geo- 
graphic unity, speaking the same language, and standing on the 
same level of culture. In fact, the Iroquois soon became aware 
that the common enjoyment of utilities meant greater economic 
benefit for all, and that in union, rather than in individual inde- 
pendence, lay the secret of power against outside nations. The 
Hurons, to the north of them, were not long in recognizing the 
same fact. Among the latter the movement never went further 
than the formation of a mere league. 1 The Iroquois, however, 
created a well organized Confederacy. Mr. Morgan was so 
impressed by the completeness of the Iroquois' plan of federation 
that he believed it to embody the well thought-out scheme of 
some one great leader. The truth seems to be that the Confed- 
eracy was the growth of many years. 2 As early, perhaps, as 

Jes. Rel., X, 211 sq. — "They maintain themselves in this perfect har- 
mony by frequent visits, by help they give one another in sickness, by 
feasts and by alliances." 

1 Jes. Rel. XVII, 195 ; XVI, 227. 

Other examples of such confederacies as the Iroquois and Hurons may 
be seen in that of the Creeks, consisting of six tribes; the Ottawa Con- 
federacy (3 tribes) ; the Dakota League of the " Seven Council Fires." 
Morgan, " Anc. Soc," p. 122. 

z Parkman, "Christian Examiner," May, 1851 — "The divided Iroquois 
harassed by the attacks of enemies, or threatened by a general inroad, 
might have been led to see the advantages of a league; and to effect that 
end, the most simple and obvious course would have been that the sachems 
of all the nations should unite in a common council. When this had been 
done, when a few functionaries had been appointed, and certain necessary 
regulations established, the league would have formed itself, without any 



ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCERS. 4 I 

the year 1450, the Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Senecas 
were united in an offensive and defensive league ; a hundred 
years later, the Mohawks arrived and settled permanently in the 
.Mohawk Valley; and by 1570 the league had probahly taken its 
historic form. 

Besides the Iroquois themselves, with their clan, their tribal 
and their confederate organization, there was also another class 
of producers to be found in every Iroquois village. This element 
in the population was composed of captives — slaves, the Jesuits 
call them — and of some other persons of servile status. Slave 
labor, in a modified form, was employed by members of both 
men's and women's clans. Captives, whose lives had been spared 
for this purpose, did the hardest and most menial work in every 
line of production — in hunting and fishing, in agriculture, and 
in housework. " It was an Iroquois custom,"' says Mr. Carr, 
" to use captives to assist their women in the labors of the field, 
in carrying burdens, and in doing general menial labor/' 1 Thus 
we hear of a certain mistress of twenty slaves who " knew not 
what it was to go to the forest to get wood, nor to the river to 
draw water." 2 Deserving captives were eventually admitted to 
clan membership. 3 Nevertheless, at any given moment there 
were always two elements in the Iroquois population : on the one 
hand, the free producers, organized into clans and controlling the 
access to the sources of supply ; on the other hand, the captives — 
an aggregation of individuals completely in the power of their 
conquerors. The other element in the servile class was composed 

very elaborate legislation, in the condition in which it stood at the time 
of its highest prosperity. To these views Morgan assents in his last word 
upon the subject." 

'Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 517. Cf. La Hontan, "Voy- 
ages," II, 7 — " Women slaves are employed to sow and reap the Indian 
corn ; the men slaves have for their business the hunting and shooting 
when there is any fatigue." Cf. Jes. Rel., XVI, 201 ; XXXI, 61, 71, 81 ; 
XXXIV, 117; XXXIX, 63, 187; LX, 185; II, 298. 

2 Jes Rel., LIV, 93. 

3 Carr, " Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 517 — " When a captive proved 
himself possessed of what in their judgment constituted manly qualities, 
then he was fully adopted and admitted to all the privileges of an Iro- 
quois." 



42 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

of certain effeminate men of Iroquois birth. These persons, often 
perfectly able-bodied, but too self-indulgent to endure the hard- 
ships of hunting and war, had abandoned the men's clan and 
devoted themselves to field-work and other feminine occupations. 
Their desertion of the sphere of activity in which they were most 
needed was punished by contempt and scorn. According to Ely 
S. Parker, an educated Iroquois, " when any man, excepting the 
cripples, old men, and those disabled in war or hunting, chose to 
till the earth, he was at once ostracised from men's society, classed 
as a woman or squaw, and disqualified from sitting or speaking 
in the councils of his people until he had redeemed himself by 
becoming a skillful warrior or a successful hunter." 1 Effeminate 
men and captives thus formed a servile class producing under the 
direction and authority of the clans. 

At the same time there was arising, within the clan, a class of 
persons who, by virtue of the part they claimed to play in produc- 
tion, had a certain indefinite authority over the activities of the 
clan itself. The medicine men were the supposed masters of cer- 
tain natural forces, without whose aid all labor would be in vain. 
No crop could succeed nor hunting expedition prosper, unless the 
medicine man exerted himself to bring good weather. At every 
turn the cooperation of the medicine man was necessary for the 
welfare of the clan. Just as the clans directed the labor and con- 
trolled every action of the servile classes, so the medicine men, in 
their turn, determined to a certain extent the ultimate fate of the 
clans. 

To recapitulate : — the nature of their environment caused the 
Iroquois to pursue hunting and fishing, and even to a greater 
extent, agriculture, as a means of livelihood: a sexual division 
of labor resulted, the women devoting themselves mainly to agri- 
culture, the men to warfare and hunting: within these groups, 

1 Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 517. The class of males in 
question existed in many semi-agricultural and hunting tribes in America. 
They rose in public estimation as the community tended more and more 
to go over to the agricultural basis and the work of the hunter and war- 
rior became less important. Among the Illinois, for instance, the effe- 
minate men were summoned to the councils and held in great respect. 
Jes. Rel., LIX, 129, p. 309, note 26. 



ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCERS. 43 

cooperative methods of work were found advantageous, and hence 
the formation of the women's and of the men's clans — the former 
to carry on agriculture; the latter to attend to war and hunting: 
for reasons arising from the very nature of their work, and the 
differing degrees of importance of their product, the women's 
clan had a more conspicuous influence on the life of the com- 
munity than the men's organization: altogether, the transitional 
stage of culture upon which the Iroquois were living, affords a 
valuable opportunity for the simultaneous study of the economy 
regulated by the hunting and warring clan of men, and of the 
first stages of the economy dominated by the communal clan : 
economic conditions, also, account for the organization of the 
clans into tribes, and of the latter into a confederacy: finally, 
the fact is patent that besides the Iroquois proper with their clan, 
tribal, and confederate organization, there also existed another 
class of producers, composed of captives and effeminate men, 
whose relation to the Iroquois was a coercive one, based upon 
the fact that their personal liberty was controlled by the clans : 
in addition, there were the medicine men who also exercised a 
sort of coercion over the clans; their power, based upon their 
supposed monopoly of the control of certain natural forces, being 
coextensive with the degree of credulity of the people. 



CHAPTER IV. 
The Wealth of the Iroquois. 

The wealth of the Iroquois, gained largely by cooperative 
effort, and without any private appropriation of the sources of 
supply, consisted of a heterogeneous collection of economic goods. 
Since there was no recognized standard in units of which the 
sum of values could be expressed, the Iroquois always considered 
their wealth in the concrete, as a relatively valuable collection of 
goods. Some of these were useful as production, others as 
direct consumption goods. 

Among the production-goods of the Iroquois, there were certain 
implements of general use in forest life, while others owed their 
existence to the prevalence of some particular manner of pro- 
ducing raw material. All these articles, however, may be termed 
primary production-goods. 

The simplest, and at the same time the most universally neces- 
sary implement in use among the Iroquois, as among all primitive 
peoples, was the knife. 1 In nearly all productive operations it 
was the first tool needed ; fortunately, it was also the most easily 
obtained. " If a knife was wanted," says Mr. Beauchamp, " a 
flake was picked up, to which in a few minutes an edge was 
given ; it was used and thrown away. 2 Larger and more care- 
fully worked specimens of stone, bone, or wood were also made 
and preserved for permanent use. Among those of stone, some 
were nearly circular, and chipped to a sharp edge all around ; 
others were elliptical, or of long diamond form ; many approached 
what we call the knife form, being long and narrow, thin and 
sharp, and inserted in a handle. Such an implement would be 

1 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 49-53; No. 41, pp. 378- 
379 ; No. 50, p. 255 ; Morgan, " League," p. 358. 

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 15. 

44 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 45 

useful alike in war, in hunting', and in many other activities of 
daily life. 

Side by side with the knife in the scale of importance, stands 
the axe. This also was a tool whose services were needed at one 
stage or another of almost every branch of production. The axe, 
or celt, one of the few polished stone articles made by the Iroquois, 
was a piece of hard sandstone, greenstone, or slate, 1 chipped and 
polished into the shape of an ordinary hatchet or wedge, round 
and blunt at one end, and with a broad cutting edge at the other. 
" Often " says Lafitau,- " the life time of a savage was not long 
enough for its completion ; whence it comes that such an article, 
though still rude and imperfect, was a precious heritage for the 
children." The putting on of the handle was, in itself, no small 
task. " One must choose a young tree," Lafitau goes on to tell 
us, " and without cutting it down, make a handle of it. One cuts 
it in one end and there inserts the stone ; the tree grows, presses 
it tight, and so incorporates it in its trunk that it is rare and diffi- 
cult to remove it." At this stage of growth the tree was cut 
down and the axe and its wooden handle were carved out, ready 
for use. Sometimes, however, the handle seems to have been 
put on by quicker and more artificial methods ; the orifice of the 
only ancient handle now in possession of the New York State 
Museum has evidently been finished, at least, by fire. 3 Mr. 
Morgan says that a deep groove was cut around the small end of 
the hatchet, by means of which it was firmly attached to the 
handle with a withe or thong. 4 This statement, however, does 
not seem to be well founded, either upon historical or archeological 
evidence. Instead of the groove, the device of roughening the 
stone near the blunt end was adopted by the Iroquois, in order 
to give the handle a firm grip. These axes were used to fell 
trees, to cut fire-wood, and for other work of the sort. Fire was 
generally employed to do the first part of the work, the stone tool 
being used to chip away the charred wood. We learn from 

'Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 18, pp. n sq. 

2 Lafitau, II, no. 

3 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 18, p. 12. 

4 Morgan, " League," p. 359. 



46 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Champlain, however, that the axe sometimes did the whole work, 
and did it much more expeditiously than would seem likely to a 
modern lumberman. Champlain says that the Mohawks in 1609, 
upon meeting his party, " began to hew down trees with villanous 
axes which they sometimes got in war, and others of stone, and 
fortified themselves very securely." 

Besides such implements of general usefulness as the axe and 
the knife, the Iroquois manufactured others especially intended 
to increase the products of hunting, fishing, and agriculture. 
The implement most important to the hunter was his bow and 
arrow. The bow was made of red cedar or some similar wood, 
hardened by fire and scraped into shape with a shell knife. 1 It 
was not the short bow, so efficient in the hands of the mounted 
hunter ; on the contrary, it often equalled the height of a man. 2 
A weapon of this kind could be used only by a man of strength 
and experience. In such hands it could send an arrow with 
fearful force. The bow string consisted of a hempen cord or 
a deer sinew. If the latter, it was prepared by being drawn 
back and forth in a groove cut in a piece of soft sandstone. 3 
The arrow used was about three feet long. Sometimes two 
feathers stripped from the quill were passed around the small end 
in a twist and tied in place with sinews. This arrangement 
caused the arrow to revolve in its flight, giving it a horizontally 
and precision of motion which much increased its force. In 
this respect, the Iroquois hunter showed greater ingenuity than 
was displayed by the English and Scottish archers who never 
seemed to have discovered the advantages to be secured by a 
revolving motion of the arrow. 4 It is probable, however, that 
the Iroquois did not always make use of their invention, since 
a rotary motion often may not have been desirable in the woods. 
The Iroquois arrow-head was made of wood, stone, or bone : the 

1 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 41. 

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 46; Lafitau, II, 196; Mor- 
gan, "League," pp. 305-306. 

'Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 18, p. 43. 

* Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, pp. 24-25; Morgan, "League," 
PP- 305-306. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 47 

Onondagas, according to Mr. Beauchamp, now use, and probably 
always have used, blunt headed arrows made entirely of wood : 
stone arrow-heads, however, seem to have been most commonly 
employed by the other tribes. These last were generally of the 
common flint of the region, chipped into a flat triangular shape. 
Less frequent than the stone were the bone and horn arrow-heads. 
These were sometimes merely hollow points into which the wooden 
shaft was fitted, and less often were solid pieces inserted into the 
wood. Most of the Iroquois arrow-heads, of whatever material, 
were barbed and fastened to the shaft with a strong fish glue, or 
bound on with sinew and cord. 1 

Traps and snares were much used by the Iroquois hunter. - 
They were generally made with the aid of strong bark or hempen 
ropes and cords. 3 Mr. Morgan describes one species of deer 
trap, in which a young tree was bent over, and so adjusted that 
the springing of the trap fastened a loop around the hind legs of 
the animal, and at the same time released the tree, thus drawing 
the deer upwards and holding him suspended in the air. 4 La 
Hontan says that foxes, bears, martens and some other varieties 
of game were also generally caught in traps. 5 Beaver were rarely 
taken by this method, as the only kind of trap that could deceive 
them was made of a sort of willow very hard to get. Their own 
dam, in fact, when a hole had been cut in it and the water allowed 
to run out, formed an effective enough trap in which they could 
be killed with ease. In winter, however, they were often caught 
in nets spread under holes in the ice and baited with a bit of wood. 
Another use of the net was as a snare for wild fowl. According 
to La Potherie, the Iroquois used to " make a broad path in the 
woods, and attach to two trees, one on each side, a large net in 
the shape of a sack well opened." 6 Sometimes seven or eight 

beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, pp. 15-38; No. 50, pp. 290- 
293; Lafitau, II, 196. 
2 Jes. Rel., XXIX, 207; XXIII, 157. 
s Jes. Rel., IX, 253. 
* Morgan, " League," p. 345. 

5 La Hontan, " Voyages," II, 160. 

6 La Potherie, II, 80. 



48 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

hundred pigeons were thus captured in 1 one night. Mr. Morgan 
describes a contrivance for corraling deer, which is based upon 
somewhat the same principle as the net for capturing birds. He 
also says that the Iroquois had no dogs adapted to the chase ; yet 
when we consider the universal use of dogs for hunting purposes 
by all the other forest tribes, we cannot believe that they alone bred 
dogs only as articles of food. We are certain, at any rate, that 
the Hurons trained dogs to aid in the pursuit and capture of 
game, and that they valued them for this purpose even more than 
as food. 2 

The bow and arrow, traps and snares of various kinds, and 
perhaps the dog, were then the chief means of production used by 
the Iroquois hunter. 

Fishing also necessitated the creation of a distinct set of imple- 
ments, the most characteristic of which were the harpoon and the 
net. Although large fish were frequently shot with an arrow by 
a man wading in a shallow stream or standing in the bow of a 
canoe, 3 yet the harpoon 4 was the weapon most often in the hands 
of the fisherman. It was made of bone or horn, pointed and 
barbed on one side or on both. The size varied : one fine speci- 
men lately found on a village site in Monroe County, N. Y. — a 
single-barbed harpoon of elk-horn — measured nearly 10^2 inches 
in length, and was about half an inch broad in the middle. Such 
a head, attached to a stout staff, might do great execution in the 
hands of a skillful fisherman. La Jeune says that " in the eel . 
season a man might spear three hundred in a single night." 
Fish-hooks do not seem to have been used to any great extent 
before the coming of the whites; 6 nevertheless, a sort of bone 
hook was made, differing somewhat from that manufactured after- 
wards from the European model. Sagard describes the primitive 

'Jes. Rel., XLII, 95; LVI, 49. 

2 Jes. Rel., VI, 299, 303; XIV, 33; LVII, 299, 319; LXIII, 265; LX, 153. 
3 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 19. 
* Ibid., No. 50, p. 293-304. 
6 Jes. Rel., VI, 309. 

6 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 50, pp. 304-311; Beauchamp, 
" Iroquois Trail," pp. 92-93. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 49 

Huron invention as " a piece of wood and a bone, so placed as to 
form a hook, and very neatly bound together with hemp." Just 
how these articles were made w e get uo very good idea ; at any 
rate, it seems certain that they were not much used. Besides the 
harpoon, the net was the chief implement used in fishing. The 
article itself was the product of considerable labor, involving the 
gathering and preparation of the hemp or bark fiber and its weav- 
ing into the desired fabric. The aid given by the net to the fisher- 
man, however, repaid him for the time and pains spent in its 
manufacture. All the Iroquois made extensive use of the net, 
especially in the capture of smaller fish in the rifts and shallow 
places of streams where most of their fishing camps were situated. 
Here they could employ their favorite implement, either as a 
scoop-net or as a seine. Nets were used both summer and winter. 
The Hurons used to fish by this means through holes cut in the 
ice. 1 The utility of both nets and harpoons was greatly increased 
by the use of weirs of various kinds within which the fish were 
driven in great numbers. 2 The Hurons often placed hurdles in 
streams, with nets across the openings. The Oneidas, according 
to Mr. Beauchamp, " made fish-pounds with two rows of stakes 
across streams, driving the fish into them and killing them there." 
The Iroquois also built stone fish-weirs, one of which is still 
standing in the Seneca River — a stone wall several hundred feet 
in extent, and built zig-zag across the river. Considerable in- 
genuity was displayed in the construction of these weirs. In 
1656-7 the Jesuit Chronicler admiringly remarks : " Our savages 
construct their dams and sluices so well that they catch at the 
same time the eels that descend and the salmon that always 
ascend." 3 

Just as hunting and fishing led to the invention of certain im- 
plements of use in these pursuits, so also the practice of agricul- 
ture caused the employment of another special set of tools. After 

1 Sagard, p. 259; Jes. Rel., XXXV, 175. 

Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 75; Beauchamp, "Iroquois 
Trail," pp. 92-93; La Potherie, III. 34. 

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, pp. 76-78. 

3 Jes. Rel., XLIII, 261. 

4 



5<D ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

the fire and the axe 1 had been made to do their part in clearing 
the land, rakes, in the shape of a big wooden hook, were em- 
ployed to drag the brush-wood along the ground to the heap 
where it was to be burned. In the roughly prepared ground, 
between the roots and stumps of the trees, corn hills about three 
feet in diameter and standing well apart were heaped up by the 
aid of another wooden tool. Lafitau describes this tool as " a 
curved piece of wood, three fingers broad, attached to a long 
handle." 2 With this digging stick eight or nine holes were made 
in a hill, and filled up again after the seed had been dropped in. 
Cultivation was carried on mostly with wooden hoes : 3 sometimes 
a shell or the shoulder blade of a deer, fastened to a wooden 
handle, might be used instead. 

Thus each of the great productive activities of the Iroquois led 
to the invention of certain necessary implements. Because they 
were hunters, they used the bow and arrow and traps of various 
kinds ; because they were fishers they developed the idea of the 
harpoon, the net and the weir ; as agriculturists they invented the 
rake, the digging stick, and the hoe ; and in every branch of pro- 
duction, they used the knife and the axe. All these implements 
were of the most simple and primitive construction ; nevertheless, 
they were made of the most available and easily manufactured 
material, and were exactly what was needed for the particular 
purpose for which they were invented. 

Since the articles thus far mentioned were the means of pro- 
ducing raw materials, they have been called primary production- 
goods. The subsequent working up of these raw products into 
finished consumption-goods demanded the invention of another 
set of implements, which may be designated secondary produc- 
tion-goods. 

First on the list were the articles used in the preparation of 
food. To kindle the fire over which they cooked or smoked their 
provisions, the Iroquois used the weighted drill with spindle- 

'La Potherie, III, 18-19; Lafitau, II, 109-110; Champlain, p. 86. 

2 Lafitau, II, 75 sq. ; La Potherie, III, 19. 

"Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 54; No. 18, p. 24. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 5 I 

whorl. 1 Cooking and eating utensils, though simple, were made 
of the best available material — chiefly bark, wood and earthen- 
ware — and fulfilled very satisfactorily the purposes for which 
they were intended. " Our cooking and eating utensils/' 
Alary Jemison, " consisted of a hominy block and pestle, a small 
kettle, a knife or two, and a few vessels of bark or wood." 2 The 
mortar and pestle were among the most important articles of 
household furniture. The former, though sometimes made of 
stone, was usually a tree trunk hollowed out by fire, while the 
pestle was a piece of hard wood, larger at both ends and smaller 
in the middle. The wooden mortar was used to grind corn and 
dried meats, while the stone mortar served to crush nut shells, 
materials for pottery, and other hard substances. 3 Next to the 
mortar in importance came the earthenware vessels in which the 
cooking was done. These pots, made of clay mixed with 
pounded stone and shell, were spherical at the bottom, and usually 
constricted below the top, having an expanded rim. There were 
two sorts, — common clay colored pottery, and the more valuable 
black pottery, which was of fine enough texture to admit of a 
polish, and firm enough to look like stone. According to Sagard, 
the material, with a little grease added to it, was worked and 
kneaded by the hands of the women into a perfectly rounded ball. 
With the fist, a hole was then made in the material and constantly 
enlarged by turning and slapping the outside of the mass with a 
little wooden paddle, until the vessel had assumed the desired 
shape. It was then dried in the sun and baked in a fire made of 
bark. " These vessels," Sagard says, " are so strong that they 
do not break when on the fire without water in them, as ours do, 
but at the same time they cannot stand dampness and cold water 
long without getting frail and breaking at the least knock that 
one gives them. Otherwise they are very durable." 4 The early 
writers mention only the method of making pottery described by 

1 Mason, " Origin of Inventions," p. 88. 
2 " Life of Mary Jemison," p. ~2. 

3 La Potherie, III, 19; Beauchamp, X. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 18, p. 32, 
34- 

4 Sagard, pp. 275-276. 



52 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Sagard. Mr. Beauchamp thinks that vessels were sometimes 
formed on a kind of foundation, though just what it might have 
been, he does not know. In general the hand seems to have 
been employed without much other aid. The method of cook- 
ing, whether by placing the vessel on the fire, or by putting 
red hot stones in it until the contents were brought to the boiling 
point, is also a matter of doubt. From Sagard's account, the 
former method seems probable. These pots were also used for 
other purposes than the primary one of cooking. They were 
probably employed as water-pails or for holding a temporary 
supply of grain. For the reception of dry substances, however, 
the bark dish, tray, or barrel was most convenient. The bark tray 
was used in a number of ways, but chiefly in the preparation of 
corn-bread. It was made of a strip of elm-bark, rounded or 
gathered up at the ends, so as to form a shallow concavity. 
Around the rim, splints of hickory were stitched to hold the article 
in shape. These trays were of all sizes, holding from one to ten 
pecks. 1 The bark tub for holding maple sap and for other similar 
uses was made in somewhat the same way. 2 The bark barrel in 
which surplus stores were kept was also made of the inner rind 
of the red-elm bark, the grain running around the barrel. It was 
stitched firmly up the side, and had the bottom and lid secured 
in the same manner. 3 It was very durable, and would last for 
years, if properly cared for. Other articles of wood or similar 
substances were the sieves used for sifting meal. These were 
made of twigs, splints, or corn-husks. 4 Splint baskets of all sizes 
were also manufactured. The articles used in eating were also 
mostly of wood or bark. Bowls, pitchers and other vessels of 
wood, plates of wood or of bark, spoons of wood and occasionally 
of bone or of horn were common in every Iroquois household. 5 
To sum up, — the apparatus for kindling the fire, the stone and 

1 Morgan, " League," p. 367. 

2 Ibid,, pp. 369-370. 

3 Ibid., p. 366. 

4 Ibid., pp. 382-383 ; Lafitau, II, 86-87. 

"Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 50, pp. 315 sq. ; Morgan, 
"League," p. 383; Lafitau, II, 87; Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 247. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 53 

wooden mortars, a few earthenware vessels, bark and wooden 
trays, boxes, plates, and dishes, besides the ever necessary knife, 
were the chief instruments used by the Iroquois in the preparation 
of their food. 

The making of clothing and coverings called for very little 
inventive genius on the part of the Iroquois. Their small textile 
industry they carried on almost entirely without the aid of tools. 
Lafitau and Morgan describe for us the process of manufacturing 
thread. 1 After the outer surface of the bark had been removed, 
the soft inner portion, cut into narrow strips with the finger-nail, 
was boiled in ashes and water. When dry. it was easily separated 
into small filaments several feet in length. These were then 
rolled with the palm of the hand on the bare knee into threads or 
cords of any thickness and length. Neither spinning wheels nor 
distaffs were used to work up the thread into textiles. School- 
craft says that the reed mats and such fabrics were probably 
made with the help of a sort of bone shuttle, a specimen of 
which has been found near Fort Niagara, N. Y. This imple- 
ment, intended to introduce the woof of the fabric, Schoolcraft 
describes as made " of finely polished bone. It is ten and a half 
inches in length, perfectly round, about one-eighth of an inch in 
thickness, and has a double-barbed head a quarter of an inch in 
length. Between the barbs is a mouth or slit which would en- 
able it to carry the thread across and through the warp." 2 
Another implement, employed in making burden straps and such 
articles, was a sort of hickory needle with which the bark thread 
was knit. 3 Aside from these simple tools, the Iroquois textile 
industry, limited as it was by the lack of any raw material like 
wool or cotton, did not necessitate the use of special implements. 
The manufacture of skin articles, though comparatively extensive, 
was also of a nature not likely to lead to many inventions. In 
the first place a wooden or stone scraper was necessary.' 1 Gen- 

1 Lafitau, II, 159-160; Morgan, "League," pp. 364-366. 

Cf. Sagard, pp. 250-251; Eth. Rep., 1891-2, p. 23; La Potherie, III, 34. 

2 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 88. 
s Morgan, " League," p. 365. 

4 Morgan, " League," pp. 361-362. 



54 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

erally, the Iroquois employed a wooden blade, avoiding here as 
elsewhere the unnecessary use of stone. 1 With this implement 
the hair and grain of the fresh deer skin was removed. This skin 
was then cured by soaking in a solution of deer brains and subse- 
quent exposure to a smoky fire, until the pores were closed and 
the skin soft and pliable. Bone, horn, or wooden awls and 
needles, with thread of vegetable fibre or sinew, were then em- 
ployed to sew the skin into the desired shape. 2 "A small bone 
near the ankle joint of the deer," says Mr. Morgan, " has fur- 
nished the moccason needle of time immemorial, and the sinews 
the thread." 3 Bone needles were generally flat and thin, often 
rounded at the ends, and having two holes near the centre. They 
were in fact, more like bodkins than real needles. Most of the 
finer work was probably done with the bone or horn awl, used as 
is a modern shoemaker's instrument. 4 A simple shuttle, and a 
wooden knitting needle, scrapers, and wooden and bone awls and 
bodkins, then, were the only inventions known or needed by the 
Iroquois for use in their textile industry and in the manufacture 
of skin articles. 

Among secondary production-goods should also be mentioned 
a third class of inventions arising out of the necessity of trans- 
porting products of all sorts frequently from one spot to another. 
Fishing and hunting were generally carried on at a distance from 
the village, and the surplus product had to be carried home in 
order to be utilized ; firewood and building materials often had to 
be brought from a spot a mile or so from the village ; agricultural 
products were sometimes to be transported from fields some dis- 
tance away from the village; and a general migration was occa- 
sionally necessary : hence came the invention of several articles 
to facilitate transportation by land and by water. 

In the warm season, goods going by land routes had to be 
carried for the most part on the back of the individual himself. 
The task was facilitated, however, by the use of bretelles and 

1 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 64. 

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 50, pp. 312-313. Lafitau, II, 160. 

3 Morgan, " League," pp. 360-361. 

* Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 50, p. 311. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 55 

burden straps. 1 The former, according to Lafitau, were " a sort 
of wooden frame very convenient to lift a heavy load and carry 
it easily." If this were not at hand, the goods were made into a 
package and carried on the shoulders by means of a burden strap 
passed around the forehead or chest. The strap, woven with 
warp and woof of filaments of bark, was about fifteen feet long 
and three or four inches wide in the centre. In winter, when 
snow lay on the ground, the problem of land transportation was 
more easily solved. Under these circumstances the hunter him- 
self travelled easily and swiftly with the aid of his snow-shoes, 
and at the same time dragged a heavily loaded sled. The snow- 
shoe, without which the hunter of the Eastern Forest would have 
been quite helpless in winter, and with which he could travel more 
easily than in summer, was a hickory framework three feet long 
and sixteen inches wide, bent round with an arching front and 
brought to a point at the heel. Cross pieces held it in shape. 
Within the area was a woven net- work of deer strings, with in- 
terstices about an inch square. To this the ball of the foot was 
lashed with thongs. The heel, however, was left free to work up 
and down, while through an opening left for them the toes could 
descend below the surface of the shoe as the heel was raised in 
the act of walking. 2 The sled, according to Lafitau, 3 " is made 
of two small and very slender boards, which both together are 
not more than a foot broad, and are six or seven feet long. The 
boards are bent upwards and turned backwards in front to a dis- 
tance of about six inches, in order to break and turn aside the 
snow which, piling up, would prevent the sled from running easily. 
Two sticks, a little raised, run along the whole length of the sled 
on both sides, and are fastened to it at regular intervals. To 
them are attached the ropes which hold the load on the sled. A 
savage, with his collar passed over his chest, and wrapped in his 
blanket, draws his heavily laden sled after him without much diffi- 
culty-" 4 Bretelles and burden-straps, snow-shoes and sleds, were 

1 Lafitau, II, 219 ; Morgan, " League," pp. 365-366. 
2 Morgan, "League," pp. 376-37" 
'Lafitau, II, 216-217. 
4 Lafitau, II, 220. 



56 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

the principal means invented by the Indian for transportation by 
land. For water travel they had the invaluable bark canoe. 
Birch bark suitable for the purpose did not grow in the Iroquois 
territory ; hence the boats of their own manufacture were generally 
made of elm bark. A large piece of the latter material was shaped 
in canoe form, strengthened by a rim and ribs of white ash, 
stitched into place with thread or twine, and splints. Both ends 
of the canoe were alike sharp and vertical. The size varied from 
twelve to forty feet in length, with a seating capacity of from 
two to thirty people. 1 Mr. Morgan says that such a canoe would 
last several years if well cared for ; but Lafitau, who knew the 
Iroquois well, affirms that it could not last more than one season, 
because of the poorness of the workmanship. The framework, 
he says, was nothing but unfinished branches, and the whole thing 
was so badly done that " la vue settle en fait mal au coeur." 2 
Lafitau's statement is perfectly credible, since the Iroquois much 
preferred the more durable birch bark canoes they bought of 
the Algonquins, and were not likely to spend much time upon 
the easily warped elm bark affair of their own manufacture. The 
canoe was nevertheless one of their most important possessions. 
Light and easily propelled, it was to the fisherman and the traveller 
what the snow-shoe was to the hunter. 3 Travelling, in fact, was 
done as much as possible in the warm season, when the many 
streams and lakes of the region offered the best of highways, and 
the canoe the most convenient of vehicles. 

To recapitulate : — the production-goods of the Iroquois were 
primarily such as were needed to aid in the obtaining of raw 
materials ; in other words, they were the implements of special 
use in hunting or in fishing, or in agriculture : among their pos- 
sessions was also a stock of secondary production-goods, some 
of which were used to work up raw materials into finished goods, 
and others to be of service in transportation. 

1 Morgan, " League," p. 367. 

2 Lafitau, II, 216-217. 

3 The Hurons were such expert canoemen that during the fishing season 
they often descended the St. Lawrence River to the Gulf. Schoolcraft, 
" Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 305. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 57 

The consumption-goods of the Iroquois wire such as a knowl- 
edge of their various productive activities and the nature of their 
implements would lead us to expect. First and foremost were 
articles of food. The list included maize preparations, beans and 
squashes, meat and fish, fruits, nuts, roots, maple syrup and sugar, 
and non-intoxicating beverages of various sorts. There were many 
varieties of maize preparations — more than twenty — according to 
one of the Jesuits. 1 Among the Senecas three kinds of corn were 
raised ; the white flint for hominy, the red for storing — charred 
or dried — and the white for grinding into flour and making bread. 2 
Sagamite, or corn parched in ashes, ground, and boiled with water, 
formed the standard food of the Iroquois. 3 This " mush " was 
generally seasoned with dried or fresh fish or meat, with dried 
fruit, 4 or, for lack of better things, with powdered fish bones 5 or 
wood-ashes. c One of their most delicious preparations was saga- 
mite served in a wooden plate, with two fingers of bear, sunflower, 
or nut oil poured over. 7 Maple syrup was also eaten with saga- 
mite. 8 Corn meal was also often made into bread. The corn was 
hulled by boiling in ashes and water. It was then pounded into 
meal and sifted and made with water into loaves or cakes about 
one inch thick and six inches in diameter. These cakes were 
then wrapped in corn husks and baked in the ashes or boiled in 
water. 9 Maize w-as also eaten green, roasted in the husk or boiled 
with beans. Next to maize in the village bill of fare came beans, 
pumpkins and squashes. Pumpkins were often boiled in water 
and eaten as a sort of porridge. 10 while squashes were considered 
especially good when baked in hot ashes. 11 On the hunt and the 

J Jes. Rel., X, 103. 
2 Morgan, " League," p. 370. 
3 Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 245; Margry, I, 131. 
*Jes. Rel., LI, 123. 
5 Sagard, p. 286. 
e Jes. Rel., XV, 163. 
7 Margry, I, 131. 
6 Lafitau, II, 157-158. 

"Morgan, "League," pp. 370-372; Lafitau, II, 94. 
'" Margry, I, 123. 
11 Jes. Rel., X, 103. 



58 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

fishing expedition, meat and fish became the chief basis of sub 
sistence. " It is a savage's supreme good to have fresh meat," 1 
says Father Bruyas. Of that good, however, they tasted only 
during the three or four months of the hunting season, and occa- 
sionally at other times. The surplus product was smoked and 
dried and taken home to be consumed mainly as seasoning for 
maize dishes. Several different beverages were in use among the 
Iroquois. First came water; 2 next came the broth of meat, 3 
and even pure oil. There were also two or three different kinds 
of tea ; 4 for instance, the tips of hemlock boughs boiled in water 
and seasoned with maple sugar, boiled maple sap seasoned with 
sassafras root, and a drink made of dried fruit with sugar and 
water. As yet, the Iroquois had not advanced far enough into the 
agricultural stage to invent an intoxicating drink. 

Besides their food for daily consumption, the Iroquois generally 
had on hand large stores of all kinds, particularly of maize. The 
latter was preserved in various ways. Green corn was shaved 
off the cob, baked over the fire in pans or earthen dishes, and 
dried in the sun. 5 Red corn was often picked when green, and 
the ears set up on end in a row to roast before a long fire. They 
were then shelled and dried in the sun. These parched grains, 
pounded into flour and mixed with maple sugar, formed the main 
food of warriors on expeditions when hunting and fishing were 
impossible. Green corn was also boiled in the husk, after which 
the corn was parched, shelled from the cob, and dried in the sun. 6 
This method had especially good results and the product was kept 
to be made into sagamite for extraordinary occasions. Other 
grain was harvested when ripe, and the ears, tied in bunches, 
hung up to dry. When dry enough, the corn was shelled and 
put away for future use. 7 Corn to be used for seed was left 
hanging in the cabin. Fish and meat were also stored up for 

^es. Rel., LI, 129. 

2 Jes. Rel., XXXV, 153. 

3 Loskiel, p. 74. 

* Morgan, " League," p. 330. 

5 Morgan, "League," p. 373; Lafitau, II, 157. 

6 Lafitau, II, 93. 
1 Sagard, p. 283. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 59 

use during" the year. Drying and smoking - were the only means 
of preservation. In spite of the fact that they possessed find salt 
springs, the Iroquois do not seem to have made the least use of 
salt until after their acquaintance with the Europeans. 1 They 
thought, in fact, that the waters of the springs were poisonous, and 
that the Europeans got salt from them by a miracle. 2 Besides 
their stores of fish and meat, the Iroquois also kept quantities of 
dried raspberries, huckleberries, mulberries, and strawberries, and 
nuts of various kinds. 3 Finally, animal and vegetable oils were 
tried out and preserved in lumps or in little round birch bark 
boxes. 4 All these supplies of grain, meat, fruit, and vegetables 
were put away in bark cases kept in or near the house, or were 
buried in caches not far away. 5 Corn was generally preserved by 
the former method. Packed in bark barrels, it was put on a high 
scaffolding where it would be safe from moisture, or else in the 
garrets or vestibules of the houses. Squashes and other vege- 
tables were always buried in bark-lined pits four or five feet deep. 
There they were perfectly preserved untouched by frost. Smoked 
meat and fish were generally made up into bundles and wrapped 
in bark or packed in bark cases, which were hung up in the cabin 
or buried under the floor near the fire-place. At times, however, 
cured meat was buried in pits lined with deer-skins. Thus in 
times of plenty, the Iroquois bill of fare was no mean one. Fresh 
meat and fish abounded in the hunting season, while in the village, 
maize dishes seasoned with dried meat or fruits of some sort 
usually afforded an ample basis of subsistence. In all seasons 

1 Jes. Rel., XLI, p. 125, note 6; X, 101. 

Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 75 — " Salt they did not use, 
and it was distasteful to them. The Iroquois now ascribe their degen- 
eracy and lack of manly vigor to using salt meat, instead of obtaining 
all its fresh juices, as their ancestors did." 

2 Loskiel, pp. 65-66; Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 32, p. 97; 
Jes. Rel., XLI, 256. 

a La Potherie, III, 20; Jes. Rel., II. 123; Bartram, "Observations," p. 

73- 

4 La Potherie, III, 19-20; Jes. Rel., XLIII, note 19. 

5 Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 516; Lafitau, II, 79-80; Mor- 
gan, " League," pp. 372-373 ; Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, 
PP- 54-55; Sagard, pp. 250-251. 



60 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

there was in the village a generous stored surplus to be relied 
upon in case of need. 

Next to food in the list of consumption-goods were clothing 
and coverings of various sorts. Textiles were rare among the 
Iroquois. A few manufactures of reeds and corn-husks, bags 
made of hemp fibre, and some other articles of the sort, exhausted 
the catalogue. For most of their articles of clothing and many 
of their mats and hangings, the Iroquois utilized the skins which 
they secured in hunting. Lafitau describes the dress of the or- 
dinary Iroquois as consisting of about five pieces, — the breech- 
cloth, the tunic, the leggings, the moccasins, and the robe or 
blanket. 1 Of these the breech-cloth for the men, and the short 
petticoat for the women, were considered the only absolutely in- 
dispensable garments. The others were worn or not, according 
as inclination or the weather made them desirable. The tunic 
was a sort of sleeveless chemise made of two deer skins, fringed 
at top and bottom. When they were travelling or in very cold 
weather, the Iroquois often wore a pair of sleeves. These 
were not attached to the tunic, but were tied together by two 
thongs which passed behind the shoulders. The leggings were 
made of a piece of skin, folded and sewed to fit the leg. The 
Iroquois shoe or moccasin into which the footless stockings were 
tucked, was also of skin, without sole or heel, but shaped to 
fit the foot. Sometimes they used for this purpose the skin of 
the elk's hind leg, cutting it above and below the gambrel joint, 
and taking it off entire. " As the hind leg of the elk inclines at 
this point nearly at a right angle, it was naturally adapted to the 
foot," says Mr. Morgan. " The lower end was sewed firmly with 
sinew, the upper part secured above the ankle with deer strings." 2 
The robe mentioned by Lafitau was a sort of blanket of skins. 
Upon some of these garments the hair was left untouched, while 
others had been cured and tanned in the Iroquois way. All sorts 
of skins were used. One of the favorite sorts was that of the 
black squirrel. Several of these were sewed together, and a 
border of tails left along the lower edge of the garment. The 

1 Lafitau, II, pp. 27-31. 

2 Morgan, "League," p. 361. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. Cl 

robe was worn wrapped around the body, and held by the hand 
or by a belt. A pocket or pouch of skin, suspended from the neck 
by a leather thong, generally gave the finishing touch to the Iro- 
quois wardrobe. 1 It was, as we have seen, made of materials 
already secured as a by-product of the food-quest, and though 
simple was complete and comfortable, and well suited to the 
climate and occupations of the Iroquois. 

The paraphernalia of the Iroquois warrior included some other 
articles of clothing in the shape of armor. 2 Before the introduc- 
tion of fire arms, shields were very generally used. Lafitau says 
that they were made of wicker or bark, covered with skins, 
though some consisted only of very thick skins. They were of 
all sizes and forms. Armor, too, was effectively employed to 
ward off arrows and blows from the axe. Lafitau describes this 
armor as " a tissue of wood or of little pieces of reed, cut in pro- 
portionate lengths, pressed tightly together, woven and interlaced 
very neatly with little cords made of deer-skin." There were 
three part to such a suit, — a tunic or coat of mail, leg pieces, and 
arm pieces. So much, then, for clothing. It remains to inquire 
what other defenses against weather and hostile beings were 
possessed by the Iroquois. 

The dwellings of the Iroquois, as of nearly all the Forest In- 
dians, were constructed of wood and bark, the most convenient 
and plentiful material at hand. Even the nomad Algonquin- 
were in the habit of carrying around with them rolls of bark with 
which they covered the light frame-work of their wigwams. 3 On 
the hunt and the warpath, the Iroquois used similar temporary 
structures. In the villages, however, they built large and per- 
manent houses, in which they lived for the greater part of the 
year. Descriptions of the Iroquois house are many, though un- 
fortunately they are also various. 4 Mr. Morgan's description 

1 Jes. Rel., XLIV, 295. 

2 Lafitau, II, 196-197; Morgan, " League," pp. 362-364; Beauchamp, N. 
Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, pp. 40-42. 

3 Le Clercq, p. 157 sq. ; Jes. Rel., I, 257; V, 27; VIT, 35-37. 

* Lafitau, II, 10-17; Sagard, pp. 250-251; Jes. Rel., VIII, 105, 107; Jes. 
Rel., XV, 153, 246, note 4; XXXVIII, 247; La Hontan, p. 96; Champlain, 
"Voyages" (Laverdieres ed.), p. 562; Morgan, "League," pp. 317 sq. ; 



62 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

taken in connection with the early French accounts, probably gives 
the best idea of the facts : " The ga-no-sote, or Bark-house, was a 
simple structure. When single it was about twenty feet by fifteen 
upon the ground, and from fifteen to twenty feet high. The 
frame consisted of upright poles firmly set in the ground, usually 
five upon the sides, and four at the ends, including those at the 
corners. Upon the forks of these poles, about ten feet from the 
ground, cross-poles were secured horizontally, to which the rafters, 
also poles, but more numerous and slender, were adjusted. The 
rafters were strengthened with transverse poles, and the whole 
was usually so arranged as to form an arching roof. After the 
frame was thus completed, it was sided up, and shingled with red 
elm or ash bark, the rough side out. The bark was flattened and 
dried, and then cut in the form of boards. To hold these bark 
boards firmly in their places, another set of poles, corresponding 
with those in the frame, were placed on the outside, and by means 
of splints and bark rope fastenings, the boards were secured hori- 
zontally between them .... In like manner, the roof was cov- 
ered with bark boards, smaller in size, with the rough side out, 
and the grain running up and down ; the boards being stitched 
through and through with fastenings and thus held between the 
frames of poles, as on the sides. In the centre of the roof was 
an opening for smoke, the fire being upon the ground in the centre 
of the house, and the smoke ascending without the guidance of a 
chimney. At the ends of the house were doors, either of bark 
hung upon hinges of wood, or of deer or bear skins suspended 
before the opening ; and however long the house, or whatever the 
number of fires, these were the only entrances. Over one of these 
doors was cut the tribal (gentile) device of the head of the family. 
Within, upon two sides, were arranged wide seats, also of bark 
boards, about two feet from the ground, well supported under- 
neath, and reaching the entire length of the house. Upon these 
they spread their mats of skins, and also their blankets, using them 
as seats by day and couches at night. Similar berths were con- 
structed on each side, about five feet above these, and secured to 

" Houses and Houselife," pp. 120, 123 sq. ; Schoolcraft, IV, 340 ; Beau- 
champ, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 32, p. 24. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 63 

the frame of the house, thus furnishing accommodations for the 
family. Upon cross-poles, near the roof, was hung in bunches, 
braided together by the husks, their winter supply of corn. 
Charred and dried corn and beans were generally stored in bark- 
barrels and laid away in corners. Their implements for the chase, 
domestic utensils, weapons, articles of apparel, and miscellaneous 
notions, were stowed away, and hung up, wherever an unoccupied 
place was discovered. A house of this description would accom- 
modate a family of eight." Mr. Morgan is here describing a house 
for a single family. As a matter of fact, the Iroquois houses were 
generally built for occupancy by several families. In that case the 
cabin was made longer by twenty or twenty-five feet for every n< \v 
fire. The fires were built along the central passage running from 
one end of the cabin to the other. Each was used by two families, 
one on each side. A cabin might contain eight or ten fires, and as 
many as sixteen or twenty families. In the spaces between the 
platforms, were kept extra mats and cases of provisions. In such a 
house, Lafitau says, a separate apartment was often left at each end 
where the young men of the household slept. Passing over one 
or two details mentioned by Lafitau and omitted by Mr. [Morgan, 
we find that a few rather more important features of the Long- 
house have been neglected or misunderstood by the latter author. 
For instance, Mr. Morgan makes no mention of the exterior vesti- 
bules built at either end of the cabin. Yet these were important 
parts of the dwelling, both as places of storage and as general 
living-rooms in summer. Lafitau says " their exterior vestibule 
is closed in winter with bark, and serves them for storing their 
larger fire-wood, but in summer they open it on all sides to get the 
breeze. During the hot weather, many put their mats on the roofs 
of these vestibules, which are flat. They sleep thus in the open 
air, without being troubled by the dew." Morgan seems to be 
wrong in stating that the upper platform of bark, running along 
the side of the room, was used as a bed. Lafitau calls this "le 
ciel du lit," and says that " it takes the place of closets and pan- 
tries, where they put in plain sight their dishes and all the little 
utensils of their menage." 

The necessity of defense did not allow the dispersion of the 



64 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Iroquois houses, so that each might stand in the centre of its own 
fields. On the contrary, the settlement took the form of a closely 
built and irregularly arranged group of from forty to one hun- 
dred and forty dwellings of all sizes, the whole surrounded by a 
trench and pallisade, the latter often supported by an earthen 
wall. 1 There are many descriptions of the fortified Iroquois 
town. 2 Lafitau's is perhaps the most complete. 3 " They choose 
pretty well the site of their villages. They locate them as far as 
possible, in the centre of some good lands on some little hillock 
which gives them a view of the surrounding country, for fear of 
being surprised, and on the bank of some stream which, if it is 
possible, winds around the spot, and forms, as it were, a natural 
moat in addition to the fortifications which art can add to a site 
already well defended by nature. They leave in the centre of their 
villages a place large enough for public assemblies. The cabins 
are pretty closely packed together, which exposes them to the 
continual danger of fire, since they are made of such inflammable 
material. Their streets are not very regular, each one building 
where the ground seems most unincumbered and least stony. 
The most exposed villages are fortified with a palisade from fif- 
teen to twenty feet high, and composed of a triple row of stakes. 
The middle row is planted straight and perpendicular, the others 
are crossed and interlaced, — and lined everywhere with large and 
strong pieces of bark, to a height of ten or twelve feet. Along 
the inside of this palisade there runs a sort of platform, supported 
by wooden forks stuck in the ground. Here at fixed intervals they 
put sentry-boxes, which in time of war they fill with stones to 
prevent the scaling of the wall, and with water to put out fire. 
The platform is ascended by means of notched tree trunks, which 
serve as ladders. The palisade also has openings like battlements. 

'Jes. Rel., I, 21; VII, 299; XV, 153; Greenhalgh, Doc. Hist, of N. Y., 
I, 13; Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, p. 11; Carr, "Mounds," 
Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 592. 

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 32, p. 69; Charlevoix, I, 12; 
Jes. Rel., XXXIV, pp. 123, 250; La Hontan, "Voyages," II, p. 96; Sagard, 
pp. 79-80; Morgan, "League," pp. 313-314; Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. 
Rep., 1891, p. 592. 

"Lafitau, II, 3 sq. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 65 

The nature of the site determines the shape of their enclosure. 
There are some polygons, but the majority are round and elliptical 
in form. The palisade has but one exit, through a narrow gate 
cut slanting and closed with cross bars, through which one is 
forced to pass sideways. They take care also to leave a pretty 
broad empty space between the palisade and the cabins." Evi- 
dently, the village with its large and carefully built houses, and its 
elaborate fortifications, represented no small part of the wealth of 
the Iroquois. 

The wealth of the Iroquois, then, speaking from the concrete 
point of view, was a collection of economic goods procured from 
their environment chiefly by means of hunting, fishing, and agri- 
culture. Of these commodities, a part was valuable as acquisi- 
tive capital, either in the obtaining of raw materials, or in work- 
ing up the latter into finished articles. The nature of these 
production-goods was directly determined by the peculiarities of 
the Iroquois environment and by the different productive activities 
which called them into being. Thus since wood and bone were 
easy to obtain and to put into the desired shape, these materials 
were used whenever they could accomplish the purpose in view. 
Stone, on the other hand, was used only when necessary, as in 
the manufacture of axes. Since the Iroquois had three chief 
means of production, they also had three special sets of Primary 
Production-goods ; as, for instance, bows and arrows and traps 
for hunting, harpoons and nets for fishing, and rakes, digging 
sticks and hoes for field work. Secondary production-goods were 
also divided into classes corresponding to the needs of the industry 
in which they were employed. Thus one set of implements was 
used in the preparation of food, another in the manufacture of 
clothing, and a third in the business of transportation. Con- 
sumption-goods — food, clothing, and shelter — were all such as 
could be obtained by a hunting and fishing, and predominantly 
agricultural people, using the means of production described above. 
Maize preparations of various sorts were the staple food of the 
village, and made up the bulk of the stored surplus ; but meats and 
fish were the chief food during the hunting and fishing season, and 
supplemented maize as a part of the stock laid up for future needs. 
5 



66 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Undoubtedly field produce formed the larger part of this portion 
of the wealth of the Iroquois, while the animal world supplied the 
material of which clothing was made. Dwellings were constructed 
of wood and bark; those used during the hunting season were 
small and portable, like the ordinary wigwam of the purely hunt- 
ing tribe ; those of the village, on the other hand, were of the sort 
characteristic of a settled agricultural people. In other words, 
the village dwellings were large and permanent houses, carefully 
built, and surrounded by a strong palisade. All these goods were 
valuable ; i. e. they were important to their owners in proportion 
to the amount of effort involved in their production. As a gen- 
eral thing, the sources of supply were practically unlimited and 
access to them was free to all. Hence labor cost was the only 
factor determining value. 

Generally speaking, the Iroquois notion of wealth went no 
farther than the concrete concept from the standpoint of which 
we have been speaking. Wealth to them meant merely a collec- 
tion of freely reproducible goods each valuable mainly on ac- 
count of its usefulness to its owner and its labor cost; never- 
theless, the faint beginnings of the phenomenon which Professor 
Keasbey calls Prestige Value, 1 and the consequent concept of 
wealth as an abstract fund to be measured in terms of a standard 
of value, are plainly perceptible. There was one article known 
to the Iroquois, the amount of which was limited and the value 
of which was general and social and did not decrease under 
accumulation ; wampum was an object " both lasting and scarce, 
and so valuable as to be hoarded up." 2 The estimation in which 
wampum was held was based primarily upon its usefulness as an 
ornament. Mr. Holmes 3 says that for this purpose "the flinty 
substances of the shells of mollusks has been a favorite material 
at all times and with all peoples. Especially is this true of the 
shell-loving natives of North America among whom shell beads 
have been in use far back into the prehistoric ages, and who to- 
day from Oregon to Florida burden themselves to discomfort with 

1 Keasbey, " Prestige Value," Q. J. Eeon., XVII, May, 1903. 

2 Cf. Keasbey, " Prestige Value," Q. J. Econ., XVII, May, 1903. 

3 Holmes, Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, p. 219. 



WEALTH OF THE IROQUOIS. 67 

multiple strings of their favorite ornament ; and this, too, without 
any reference to their value as money." ..." On the necks of 
brawny and unkempt savages, 1 have seen necklaces that would 
not shame a regal wardrobe, and have marvelled at the untaught 
appreciation of beauty displayed." The Iroquois were not behind 
the other nations in their love of shell ornaments. Their women 
and even their men wore necklaces, bracelets, belts, and hair- 
ornaments made of violet and white shell beads of various sizes 
and shapes — round, oval, or cylindrical — strung on a fibre or 
sinew thread. 1 Cut in the form of sticks, it was also worn thrust 
through the lobes of the ears. 2 

Besides its aesthetic value, however, wampum possessed a cer- 
tain prestige value based upon the fact that it was not, so far as the 
Iroquois were concerned, a freely reproducible good. In the first 
place, the supply was limited to a certain locality, chiefly along the 
Atlantic coast, to which the Iroquois did not have direct access. 
Hence the greater part of their wampum had to be obtained in a 
roundabout way, through the coast tribes who manufactured it. 
In the second place, even though the Iroquois had possessed an 
unlimited supply of the raw material close at hand, the prohibitive 
labor cost involved in cutting out, perforating, and polishing the 
beads, would have given them a scarcity value. 3 Naturally, the 
more such ornaments an individual possessed, the greater the 
prestige he enjoyed. Hence it became an object in itself to be 
known as the owner of much wampum. Here, at last, was some- 
thing whose value did not decrease with accumulation. A man 
could not make use of more than one house or of more than a 
certain amount of meat or corn, but he could always find a use 
for wampum. Even after he had decorated everything and even- 
body that belonged to him, and the utility of his wampum as an 

'Jes. Rel., XIV, 163; XV, 155, 205; XLIV, 289. 291; Lafitau, II, 59; 
Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 41, pp. 326 sq., 356 sq. ; Holmes. 
Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, pp. 230 sq. ; Schoolcraft, "Notes on the Iroquois," 

P- 144- 

2 Jes. Rel., XL, 205. 

3 Woodward, " Wampum," pp. 16 sq. ; Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., 
pp. 137, 148; No. 41, pp. 330 sq. ; Jes. Rel., VIII, Notes, pp. 312 sq. 



68 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

ornament had sunk to the zero point, still he could lay up the sur- 
plus in his cabin, and thereby gain prestige among his poorer 
neighbors. It is interesting to note how far its prestige value had 
led the Iroquois and Hurons to regard wampum as the measure 
of wealth in general. A certain Huron, for instance, mentioned 
by the Jesuit Relation, 1 returns from a six months' trading journey 
with his gross receipts entirely in the form of wampum beads, of 
which he had fourteen thousand. He reckons all his wealth in 
terms of wampum, and says " that if he were richer " he would 
give a larger sum to the missionaries. Again, we find a man 
spoken of as left in deep destitution, " having seen his porcelain 
collars and all that he had, taken." 2 A wampum collar or belt 
was as tempting a bribe to the Iroquois or Huron, as a good sized 
checque is now to the modern politician. It required a stout 
struggle to refuse it. Thus an honest Huron remarks, " We have 
nothing so precious as our porcelain collars : if I were to see a 
score of them glittering before me, to entice me into sin . . . my 
heart would have loathing for that in which it has so much 
delighted." 3 On another occasion, a converted woman, trans- 
ported to the heights of enthusiasm, exclaims " My God ... I 
would rather trample under foot a thousand porcelain collars than 
commit a single sin against you." 4 Finally, we have again and 
again the direct testimony of the Jesuits that " All the riches of 
the country " were comprised in the " bracelets, crowns, and all 
the ornaments worn by the women." 5 True, it is only with the 
private appropriation of such great natural resources as land and 
cattle, and the full development of the Proprietary Period that 
the phenomenon of prestige value and the ability to measure 
wealth as an abstract fund to be expressed in terms of some unit 
of value makes its permanent appearance ; nevertheless, it was 
the same principle, working under less favorable circumstances 
which produced even among the Iroquois a faint prototype of 
future things. 

1 Jes. Rel., XXXIII, 185. 

2 Jes. Rel., XVI, 205. 
Jes. Rel., XX, 223. 
Jes. Rel., XXVI, 227. 

Jes. Rel., XLII, 155 Cf. VIII, 259, 273 ; IX, 281 ; XXXVIII, 271. 



CHAPTER V. 
The Distribution of Wealth. 

The system according to which the wealth of the Iroquois was 
distributed was an exact reflexion of their system of organization 
for production. Looking from above downward, we find the 
Confederacy exercising a sort of general control over the whole 
territorial area occupied by the Iroquois tribes and over that of 
subject nations. In order to meet necessary expenses, the Con- 
federacy also possessed a treasury of its own, filled by tributes 
exacted from dependent peoples, and by gifts from the Iroquois 
tribes themselves. Within the area controlled by the Confederacy, 
each tribe also occupied its own territorial district, 1 and possessed 
a treasury of its own, kept full by contributions from various 
sources. Presents from outsiders and from individual Iroquois 
who wished to gain influence over the tribe formed one source of 
supply :'- the gentes, however, were the chief contributors. 3 The 
contents of the treasury consisted primarily of wampum. Besides 
that commodity, the treasury also contained skins, corn meal, meat, 
and anything else that could be used toward the payment of tribal 
expenses ; as for instance, in the entertainment of ambassadors, 
and the confirmation of treaties. 4 Captives were, also, sometimes 
kept as tribal property, instead of being given to some gens. 5 

Within the tribal domain, every one had an equal right to hunt- 

1 La Hontan, "Voyages," II, 175 — " Les sauvages se font la guerre au 
sujet de la chasse ou du passage stir leurs terres, parceque les limites 
sont reglees, chaque nation connait les bornes de son pais." Cf. Morgan, 
"League" (ed. 1901), II, 272-273; Morgan, "Houses and Houselife," p 
79; Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 278; Margry, V, 395; Jes. Rel., 
XII, 189. 

2 Jes. Rel., XXIX, 57, 271; X, 235. 
8 Jes. Rel., LVIII, 185, 187. 

4 Lafitau, I, 508. 
b Ibid., II, 261-262. 

69 



JO ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

ing and fishing privileges and the use of land for cultivation. As 
regards game rights and fishing stations the distributive unit 
might be either the individual father of each family, or it might 
be the men's clan, according as the productive organization was 
the family or the clan : a single hunter had a right to as much of 
the produce of his labor as he could carry away. 1 Similarly a 
solitary fisherman who " has discovered a lake or a good fishing 
place or a Beaver dam, is owner of it; he marks the place, and 
no one disputes his right to it." 2 On the other hand, when the 
hunt or the fishing expedition was carried on by a cooperative 
group, that group or clan was regarded as the collective owner 
of the produce. " Each hunting and fishing party," says Mr. 
Morgan, "made a common stock of the capture." 3 "If they 
travel in company," says Loskiel, 4 " they have all things in com- 
mon. They usually appoint one to be their leader, and the young 
men hunt by the way. If they kill a deer, they bring it to the 
rendez-vous, lay it down by the fire, and expect that the leader 
will distribute it among the whole party." Fishing rights were 
distributed according to a similar plan. Only certain places were 
suitable for fishing with weirs, nets, and harpoons. Of these 
natural monopolies, the tribe was the owner, while possessory 
rights were claimed temporarily by individual clans. In 1753 
Zeisburger found between Oneida and Cross Lakes, six weirs 
owned by the Onondagas. On the Seneca River he went from 
one to another. At the eastern station he met an Onondaga chief 
who told him how the country was divided. " It is plain to be 
seen," he concludes, " that they have much order in their affairs. 
For instance, each one has his own place where he is permitted 
to fish, and no one is allowed to invade upon his part." 5 The 
Oneida annual fishing feast is another good example of the per- 
fect system of clan distribution. " When all were assembled," 
says Mr. Beauchamp, 6 " a row of stakes was placed across the 

1 Loskiel, p. 78. 

2 La Potherie, III, 33. 

3 Morgan, "Houses and House Life," p. 67. 
* Loskiel, p. 102. 

6 Cf. Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 50, p. 297. 
6 Beauchamp, " Iroquois Trail," p. 92. 



DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 7 I 

stream and woven with brandies. Then the fish were driven 
down the Creek, and another row of stakes was placed behind 
them. When this was done, the spearing commenced, and the 
division of fish and the feast followed." In the hunting and 

fishing season, then, either the family or the mens' elan formed 
the unit of distribution according as the domestic or the clan 
system of production was adopted. Since, however, we know 
that the latter method was the more usual among the Iroquois, 
we are justified in asserting that the clan principle of distribution 
was predominant even as regards hunting and fishing products. 
In treating of cultivated land, Powell and others always speak 
of the gens as the proprietory group; nevertheless, it must he 
remembered that not the collection of relatives known as the gens, 
but only the female members of the kindred group, were the real 
possessors of the land. The men of the gens had no part at all 
in the control of the fields from which they derived their vegetable 
food. Brothers and sons, though just as much members of the 
gens as are their mothers and sisters, " never have anything but 
their subsistence," Lafitau tells us, 1 " and have nothing to say as 
to the distribution of the land and its produce." 2 Understanding 
the word " gens," as conveying the meaning which Professor 
Keasbey puts into the term " clan,"' 3 we get from Major Powell 4 
a very good idea of the general laws of distribution in regard 
to cultivated land. "Within the area claimed by the tribe." he 
says, " each gens (clan) occupies a smaller tract for purpose of 
cultivation. The right of the gens to cultivate a particular tract 
is a matter settled in the council of the tribe, and the gens may 
abandon one tract for another only with the consent of the tribe. 
The women councillors partition the gentile land among the 
householders, and the household tracts are distinctly marked by 
them. The ground is repartitioned once in two years. The heads 

1 Lafitau, I, 72-73. 

2 Jes. Rel., LX, 45. 

3 Keasbey, "Inst, of Society," International Mo. T. 355 sq. 

•Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1870-1880, p. 65. Cf. Morgan, 
"League," p. 326; Anc. Soc, pp. 76-77; "Houses and House Life," pp. 
66-67; La Potherie, III, 33; Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 
527. 



72 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

of the households are responsible for the cultivation of their own 
tracts, and in case of neglect, the council of the gens calls the 
responsible parties to account." It seems clear that possessory 
rights to cultivated land within the tribal area belonged to the 
women's clans. Within the clan, land was divided among the 
different households according to their size. In case a family or 
household moved away to another village, the land which its 
female members had previously been cultivating simply reverted 
to the clan, and was disposed of as its officials saw fit. The same 
general rule that governed the distribution of land and its pro- 
duce, held good in the case of other immovable possessions, — 
such as houses. The latter were, in the last resort, the property 
of the women's clan. Only as a member of the organization did 
any woman have a right to a compartment in the Longhouse. 
Thus, while in the hunting season the men's clan tended to be 
the distributive unit, in the village, on the other hand, it was the 
women's organization which controlled the surplus and repre- 
sented the owning class. 

To the strength of the clan principle of distribution may 
also be ascribed the nature of the Iroquois laws of inheritance. 
Since the individual member of the women's clan possessed 
only the usufruct of lands, houses, etc., the organization would 
naturally be her heir. Generally, however, the clan found it con- 
venient to act merely as administrator, giving to the daughter 
or nearest female relative of the deceased the vacant place in its 
ranks. Of the personal property of the dead woman, — the imple- 
ments, cooking utensils, etc., a few were buried with her ; the 
rest went also to her near relatives. 1 Similarly, a man's personal 
property, his hunting and fishing implements, his clothing, etc., 
was inherited by the military clan to which he belonged, and was 
generally given to his nearest male relative in that clan ; i. e. to 
his sister's son or his brother. A man's own son belonged to 
another gens, and hence to another military clan ; therefore, he 
could lay claim to none of the possessions of the deceased. 2 From 

'Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., i87Q-'8o, p. 65; Chadwick, 
"People of the Longhouse," p. 57; La Potherie, III, 33; Jes. Rel., LXIII, 
183; Lafitau, I, 72-73. 

2 Jes. Rel., XLIV, 305-307. 



DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 73 

the point of view of inheritance, then, the clan rather than the 
organic family, stands out preeminent. The women's clan was 
the heir of any of its members ; the men's clan played the same 
part in regard to individuals belonging to its ranks. Here we 
have the solution of the apparently arbitrary custom, according 
to which women inherited from their mothers, but men from their 
uncles. 

The influence of the clan principle of distribution upon the 
consumption group is evident in the Iroquois economy. It must 
be admitted that under almost any circumstances it is not only 
possible but probable that the family will remain the consumption 
group. In the domestic and village economy this is inevitably 
the case. Even in the typical republican and communal clan 
economies there is nothing to prevent clan members from taking 
their share of the produce and consuming it in company with 
their own families and those dependent upon them. Undoubtedly 
this was often the case among the Iroquois during the hunting 
season ; nevertheless, when no women accompanied the party the 
men's clan must have consumed as such. Even after the return 
to the village, the men's clan generally appropriated most of the 
fresh meat and fish brought back and consumed it in a constant 
succession of feasts, in which the women had no part. Sometimes, 
indeed, a benevolent male relative might save his portion for them, 
but aside from these exceptions, women who stayed in the village 
were not likely to eat fresh meat from one end of the year to the 
other. 1 In the ordinary village life, also, the fact that there were 
two clans — the warriors' and the women's — seems to have had a 
tendency to cause the consumption group to identify itself with 
these organizations. The typical Iroquois household was composed 
not of a husband and wife and their children, but of a group of 
females, young and old, representing several generations, together 
with their brothers. In other words, the household or consump- 
tion group was made up of a portion or even the whole of a 
women's clan, and a corresponding portion of the warriors' clan 
of the same gens. It is interesting to note that the two organiza- 

'Jes. Rel., XVII, 113; VIII, 143; Beauchamp, "Iroquois Trail," p. 92; 
Jes. Rel, XV, 183; LXXII, 328. 



74 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

tions kept separate, even as to the time of eating, " the men eating 
first and by themselves, and the women and children afterwards 
and by themselves." Thus even as a consumption group the 
clan had become prominent among the Iroquois. 1 /^ 

It seems impossible that under the communistic regime which 
has been described, any sort of division into classes of rich and 
poor could take place. In general, the evidence on the subject 
tends to substantiate this view. In the Jesuit Relation of 1656, 
we read : " No hospitals are needed among them, because there 
are neither mendicants nor paupers as long as there are any rich 
people among them. Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not 
only make them liberal with what they have, but cause them to 
possess hardly anything except in common. A whole village 
must be without corn before any individual can be obliged to 
endure privation. They divide the produce of their fisheries 
equally with all who come ; and the only reproach they address 
to us is our hesitation to send to them oftener for our supply of 
provisions." 2 In this very quotation, however, there is evidence 
of some division of the clan into rich and poor. It is " as long as 
there are any rich people among them " that no one suffers for 
lack of food. It was indeed quite possible for temporary differ- 
ences in wealth to spring up between different households ; for in- 
stance, one family might keep its field cleaner and in better condi- 
tion than another, and so harvest a larger crop. As long as the 
other members of the clan had enough to live on, the more dili- 
gent might keep their own corn, and perhaps accumulate a large 
store, 3 adding to it from year to year. This surplus could be 
expended in feasts, or traded off with foreign tribes for skins or 
wampum and slaves. Similarly, in the hunting clan, the actual 
slayer of an animal got the skin as a reward for his skill. Thus 
a good marksman might come to be the possessor of more skins 

1 Cf. Margry, V, 389; III, 393; Morgan, "Houses and House Life." 
2 Jes. Rel., XLIII, 271-273. Cf. Heckewelder, pp. 268-269. Loskiel, p. 

14. 
3 Jes. Rel., VIII, 93-95 — A certain rich Huron referred to had two 

bins of corn holding from at least one hundred to one hundred and twenty 

bushels. 



DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 75 

than the other men. Again, a hand of victorious warriors was 
sometimes presented by the village with a large amount of wam- 
pum, which they would divide up anion-- themselves. 1 A skillful 
gambler, too, could often improve his worldly condition at the 
expense of his opponent. 2 In many such ways one individual or 
household might become richer than others, possessing more wam- 
pum, clothing, and household furnishings, and entertaining more 
lavishly. Such differences in wealth, however, were merely tem- 
porary. Accumulation, where little beyond vital and aesthetic val- 
ues prevail, does not proceed far nor last long. About the only 
object in amassing a surplus was to give it away and so to gain 
prestige. 8 " You might say," writes a Jesuit missionary, " that all 
their exertions, their labors, and their trading, concern almost en- 
tirely the amassing of some things with which to honor the dead. 
They have nothing sufficiently precious for this purpose ; they lav- 
ish robes, axes and porcelain ... in quantities . . . and yet these are 
the whole riches of the country. You will see them often in the 
depth of winter, almost entirely naked, while they have handsome 
and valuable robes in store that they keep in reserve for the 
dead." 4 Among the Five Nations, and even among the rather 
more extravagant Hurons, all this wealth did not go into the 
grave. Merely the clothes in which it was dressed, a few pro- 
visions, and some other little articles, were buried with the corpse. 
The mass of other things — corn, skins, wampum, etc. — were dis- 
tributed among the mourning friends and relations, in whose eyes 
such liberality greatly raised the prestige of the afflicted family. 
Mr. Hale 6 says that in the latter days of the Iroquois, these 
funeral usages were discontinued; nevertheless, in its time, the 

•Jes. Rel., LIV, 25. 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 81, 187. 

3 Morgan, "Houses and Houselife," pp. 455 sq. ; Lafitau, II. 89-90; 
Loskiel. pp. 14, 68; Jes. Rel, LVIII, 185; Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. 
Bui, No. 41, pp. 357-358. 

Cf. A. E. Jenks, "Faith in the Economic Life of the Amerind," Am. 
Anthrop, N. S, II (1900), p. 683. 

* Jes. Rel, X, 265-271. Cf. Lafitau, II. 413-415: Jes. ReL, LXXII, 328. 

5 Hale, "Iroquois Book of Rites," in Brinton's "Library of Aboriginal 
American Lit," Part II, p. 73. 



y6 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

custom was a good way for a family to utilize its surplus wealth. 
A similar redistribution was effected by the practice of feast- 
giving. The feast of Dreams, for instance, was held once a year, 
or oftener, on different important occasions. This festival, ac- 
cording to one of the Jesuits, " will sometimes last four or five 
days, during which all is disorder, and no one does more than 
snatch a hasty meal. All are at liberty to run through the cabins 
in grotesque attire, both men and women, indicating ... by 
signs, or by singing in enigmatical or obscure terms, what they 
have wished for in their dreams ; and this each person tries to 
divine, offering the thing guessed, however precious it may be, 
and making a boast of appearing generous on this occasion." l 
Other feasts of a more ordinary character were given all through 
the year on every imaginable occasion. 2 No one was excluded 
from these except as a punishment for some offense. 3 The result 
was that in the long run every clan member was on a level with 
the rest as far as wealth was concerned. Large public feasts 
given by one village to another, played the same part in the dis- 
tributive system of the tribe, as the purely local festivities played 
in that of the village and clan. In general, we are justified in 
asserting that the clan was the predominant distribution group of 
the Iroquois, and that within its ranks control of the surplus was 
shared equally among the members. Even accidental circum- 
stances making one man richer than another had only a temporary 
effect, which soon disappeared before the lack of motive for accu- 
mulation and the strength of the clan ideal. 

Among the rank and file of the Iroquois, equality of oppor- 
tunity in production resulted in equality in distribution ; never- 
theless, it must not be forgotten that other classes, outside the 
clans, shared in the life of the ordinary Iroquois village. These 
occupied a distinct place in the productive, and hence also in the 
distributive organization of the community. The monopolistic 
part in production played by the medicine men gave them a cer- 

1 Jes. Rel., LV, 61. 

2 Jes. Rel., VIII, 127, 143; XVII, 209; XV, 113, 183; XXIII, 187; 
LXXII, 328; XXIII, 161. 

3 Jes. Rel., XVI, 127. 



DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. JJ 

tain control over the surplus of the clan, which they were not 
slow to perceive. These people, both men and women, may some- 
times have taken part in the productive activities of the clan, and 
have received their share of the produce ; but the main part of 
their wealth they received in the form of a tax upon the surplus 
of others, rendered in return for the supposed services of the 
medicine man in controlling the forces of nature. The medicine 
man claimed to be able to cure diseases, to bring good or bad 
weather as he pleased, to make game plenty or scarce, to bring 
many fish up the streams or to hold them back, to blast or to 
foster the growth of the corn. No wonder, then, that agricul- 
turists and hunters paid him tribute, and were willing to support 
him, in order to enlist his valuable services on their side. 1 Ac- 
cording to the Jesuit Relations, the Hurons asserted " that the 
sorcerers ruin them ; for if any one has succeeded in an enterprise, 
if his trading or hunting is successful, immediately these wicked 
men bewitch him or some members of his family, so that they 
have to spend it all in doctors and medicines." 2 In fact, it was 
not unusual for a noted magician to lay a whole country under 
tribute. Thus in one case a magician exacts gifts from all the 
villages throughout the region, on pain of non-success in the fish- 
ing season. 3 In another instance, he effects the same result by 
claiming to be able to cure an epidemic. 4 It is not surprising if 
among the Iroquois, as among the Delawares 5 and other tribes, 
the medicine-men were the richest people in the country. They 
formed in reality, a class of parasites living on the surplus pro- 
duced by others. 

J Jes. Rel.. XVI, 149. Cf. XIX, 83— " Intimidating by their threats 
those who have not recourse to their art, and on the contrary, giving 
assurances of powerfully protecting those who acknowledge by some gift 
the Demon they adore." 

X, 199 — " The honors and emoluments are always great. These poor 
people . . . will give their all to anyone who pretends to help them." 

2 Jes. Rel., VIII, 123. 

3 Jes. Rel., XIX. 87. 

1 Jes. Rel., XIII, 237. 

5 Heckewelder, p. 235 — "Our doctors are the richest people among us, 
they have everything they want, — fine clothes to wear, plenty of strings 
and belts of wampum," etc. 



y8 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Just as the medicine-men stood above the clan in the distribu- 
tive system, so the servile classes stood below it. Their part in 
production we have already mentioned. In the distribution of 
the utilities they helped to produce, we have the testimony of the 
Jesuit Relations that they received nothing but " food and shelter 
in exchange for their ceaseless labor and sweat." 1 Beyond mere 
sustenance they had no rights of any kind, as long as they re- 
mained in the servile class. Rebellion or desertion on their part 
resulted in nothing but recapture, with cruel torture and death. 
y To recapitulate : — the system of distribution among the Iroquois 
is in every respect directly traceable to the peculiarities of their 
productive organization : within the area covered by the Confed- 
eracy each tribe occupied its own territory and owned all the 
sources of supply contained within the region : within the tribal 
boundaries the clans controlled the access to the sources of supply ; 
and since the women's clans represented the agricultural laboring 
force, they also had control of the cultivated land and its produce, 
and gave support to the warriors only in return for their military 
services ; while, on the other hand, the men's clan was the dis- 
tributive unit of hunting and fishing life, wherever the domestic 
economy did not reappear: the clan principle of distribution thus 
explains the laws of inheritance prevalent among the Iroquois, 
and also the form which the consumption group tended to adopt : 
besides the clan, however, there w r ere two other groups to be ac- 
counted for in treating of the distributive system of the Iroquois ; 
the jugglers or medicine men, who on the strength of their sup- 
posed monopoly in production, received an extra portion of the 
social surplus ; captives and degenerates, who formed a servile 
class, giving up the whole product of their labor to the clans, and 
living in a position of absolute dependence upon them. Evidently, 
the distributive system of the Iroquois is the direct outcome of 
their organization for production. 

'Jes. Rel., XLIII, 295. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Exchange. 

The distributive system naturally gave very little opportunity 
for the development of any system of internal trade : x differences in 
environment and manner of life in different sections of the country, 
however, led to a certain amount of barter between the Iroquois 
and other tribes. This trade received a great stimulus after the 
coming of the Europeans, when the Hurons and Iroquois, thanks 
to their fine geographical location, took the position of middle-men 
between the tribes of the interior and the European fur-traders of 
the coast. 2 With this later development we are not particularly 
concerned. What interests us is rather the earlier state of aborig- 
inal trade in this quarter. From time immemorial the Iroquois 
and Hurons had probably bartered their surplus corn and manu- 
factures for the skins and birch-bark canoes offered them by the 
non-agricultural nomads of the North. 3 The Huron country, in 
fact, was regarded as " the granary of the Algonquins." 4 With 
equal truth it might have been called the tobacco field of the 
region, considering the fact that the Petun or Tobacco nation of 
the Hurons gained its name as a result of its custom of cultivating 
large fields of tobacco expressly for purposes of trade. 5 The 
Hurons and Iroquois also bartered goods with other tribes in their 
neighborhood. r ' In this way, as well as by force of arms, the Five 

1 La Potherie, III, 33. According to La Potherie there was no internal 
trade even after the coming of the whites, except in brandy which was 
sold from house to house by any one who happened to get hold of some. 

2 Jes. Rel., VIII, 57; XIII, 215. 

'La Potherie, I, 289; Sagard, p. 274; Lafitau. II. 216 sq. ; Jes. Rel., VI, 
273; XXXVII, 65; XXXVIII, 237; Lafitau, II, 332-333— " Les nations 
sauvages commercent les unes avec les autres de tout temps. Leur com- 
merce est un pur troc de denrees contre denrees." 

«Jes. Rel., VIII, 115. Cf. XV, 155; XIII, 249; XXI. 239. 

5 Jes. Rel., I, 22. 

9 Jes. Rel, XV, 155, 247, note 7. 

79 



80 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Nations obtained much of their wampum. 1 Most of the finer 
materials — jasper, white quartz, and chalcedony — used in making 
arrow-heads, also came from other parts of the country. 2 More 
or less trade in slaves was also carried on between the Iroquois 
and other tribes. 3 Charms, too, were objects of barter between 
the Iroquois and surrounding nations. 4 

The methods by which the interchange of goods was accom- 
plished were those now familiar to all students of primitive 
society. Among the Hurons, from early spring on through the 
summer, trading parties left the villages to scatter in every direc- 
tion among the neighboring tribes. 5 These parties might consist 
of one or two canoes each holding three or four men, or they 
might be a large fleet of boats, all travelling together, and filled 
with traders and their wares and provisions. 6 In the last resort 
trade seems to have been a matter regulated by the men's clans. 
According to the Jesuit Relations, a sort of monopoly of the trade 
carried on at any spot to which he or members of his gens — that 
is to say, his clan — had paid the first visit, was regarded as a 
merchant's indispensable right. Similarly the first man to find 
a particular line of trade profitable enjoyed a certain monopoly of 
the business, which he shared as a usual thing only with members 
of his clan, and perhaps with his children. According to the 
Jesuit Relation, " Several families (gentes) have their own pri- 
vate trades, and he is considered master of one line of trade who 
was the first to discover it. The children share the rights of 
their parents in this respect, as do those who bear the same name ; 
no one goes into it without permission, which is given only in 

1 Jes. Rel., XII, 189; L, 135; Woodward, "Wampum," pp. 16 sq. ; Lloyd, 
Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), Notes, II, 244. 

2 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 16, pp. 12-13. 

3 Jes. Rel., XVIII, 173 ; LIX, 309, note 25—" The Iroquois were habit- 
ual stealers and sellers of men." 

4 Jes. Rel., XXXIX, 27; Jes. Rel., X, 51; XIX, 125. 

6 Permission to go was previously obtained from the authorities in 
order to avoid leaving the village en masse and so depriving it of its 
garrison. Cf. Sagard, p. 260. 

6 Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 247; LII, 165; XXXV, 43; XIX, 105; XXII, 75, 
81; XXXIII, 215; XXIV, 155. 



EXCHANGE. 8 1 

consideration of presents ; he associates with him as many or as 
few as he wishes." 1 Often the clans combined in order to form 
a tribal monopoly of certain lines of trade. Father Lalemant 
says, " The Arendaronons are one of the four nations which com- 
pose those whom we call the Hurons ; it is the most Eastern 
Nation of all, and is the one which first encountered the French, 
and to which in consequence the trade belonged, according to 
the laws of the country. They could enjoy this alone ; neverthe- 
less, they find it good to share it with the other nations." - 

The chief means employed to bring about the exchange of 
goods, was present-giving. According to savage custom, any 
gift outside of the clan involved another in return, and so the 
desired exchange was effected in the politest way. Thus em- 
bassies were often trading parties in disguise. The Jesuit Rela- 
tion of 1672-3 says that the Iroquois give presents to all the 
inland natives who visit Lake Superior, " to confirm," they say, 
" the peace that Onontis made," but rather to get their peltries, 
with which the Iroquois are expecting these tribes to respond to 
their presents.'' 3 Lafitau describes in detail the procedure of the 
regular merchants upon arriving among the people with whom 
they wish to trade. " The feasts and dances that the savages 
give in the course of their trading with other nations make their 
commerce an agreeable amusement. They pass from one to an- 
other as if they were on an embassy. This manner of trading is 
to proceed by means of presents. Some of them are made to 
the chief and to the body of the Nation with which commerce 
is being carried on. It responds with an equivalent, which is 
always accepted without too close inspection, since this sort of 
present is perhaps regarded as a sort of customs duty levied on 
the wares. Afterwards they traffic as individuals from one cabin 
to another. The thing which is for sale is sent to a cabin, whence 
in return something else is sent back, which is regarded as the 

'Jes. Rel., X, 224-226. 

: Jes. Rel., XX, 19. Cf. XXT, 177. 

3 Jes. Rel., LVII, 22-23. Cf. Jes. Rel., LVII, 23-25; XXII, 291; 
XXXII, 187; XVI, 129; XLIII, 101; LXVII, 257. Cf. also Bucher, 
" Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft," pp. ^\ sq. 
6 



82 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

price of the article received. But if the trader is not satisfied, 
he returns what he has received and takes back his own merchan- 
dise, unless something better or more acceptable is offered. The 
worth of a thing and the desire to have it alone regulate the 
price." 1 

This sort of commerce was, as Lafitau says, " a pure barter of 
goods for goods," in which the difference between the marginal 
utilities of the same good in the eyes of different people caused 
one commodity to be exchanged for another until each indivdual 
got rid of his surplus in one line, and supplied his needs in an- 
other. No middleman was necessary ; there was no market, nor 
any association of sellers against buyers. There was perceptible, 
however, the faint beginnings of the development of a circulating 
medium. That the Indians in their use of wampum made an 
approach to the money idea is attested by scores of passages from 
the writings of the early explorers and missionaries. Of the 
Mohawks, for instance, Cartier says, 2 " The most precious thing 
they have in all the world they call Esurguy .... Of this they 
make beads, and use them even as we doe gold and silver, account- 
ing it the preciousest thing in the world." Similar references in 
which the Iroquois are said to have used wampum as money 
occur in the accounts of many other writers. 3 Undoubtedly, wam- 
pum possessed the necessary features qualifying it for the pur- 
pose. Its utility as a source of prestige had already made it to a 
certain extent a standard of value. 4 This fundamental fact, to- 
gether with those of the imperishability, divisibility and relatively 
small bulk of wampum, gave it the place of money in the econ- 
omy of the Iroquois and of the American Indians in general. 
Hence, ransoms, fines and debts of any sort could be most accept- 
ably paid through the means of these little shell beads, either 
counted and woven into strings and belts, or measured out in a 

1 Lafitau, II, 332-333- 

2 Cartier (1535), cit. in Beauchamp, "Iroquois Trail," pp. 114-116. 

s Holmes, " Art in Shell of Amer. Inds.," Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, pp. 234- 
240; Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 41, pp. 351-356; Jes. Rel., XV, 
37; LIII, 117. 

*Cf. Ante, Ch. IV, "Wealth"; Keasbey, "Prestige Value," Q. J. Ec, 
XVII, May, 1903. 



EXCHANGE. 83 

wooden spoon. The latter method was used for small payments. ' 
As far back as the accounts go, they give abundant instances of 
the use of wampum for the purposes and in the manner described. 
A Mohawk, for instance, mentioned by the Jesuit Relation, came 
from his own country to that of the western Iroquois to get 
some beaver skins. He himself had only wampum to offer in 
exchange. 2 It was. in fact, the common thing to make purchases 
with wampum, unless something else was specified. Thus among 
the Hurons, after a year of famine, the value of wampum rose 
considerably, as they had been obliged to part with most of it in 
order to buy food. 3 Again. Father Bressani was twice sold as a 
slave among the Iroquois, and both times was paid for in wam- 
pum, the price being three thousand beads the first time, and con- 
siderably more the second time. And so instances might be 
multiplied showing the extent to which wampum money was 
used by the Iroquois. Undoubtedly in the natural state no con- 
cept of exchange value can become prominent, and hence no 
really important function can be performed by money ; neverthe- 
less, in the use of wampum among the Iroquois there can be ob- 
served the most primitive workings of principles which dominate 
the more advanced stages of civilization. 

'La Potherie. Ill, 33. 

2 Jes. Rel., XVII, 77- 

3 Jes. Rel., LX, 42-43. Cf. X, 217; XXXIV, 209. 



PART II. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Family. 

From the study of the environment and the consequent pro- 
ductive and distributive systems of the Iroquois, a fairly satis- 
factory idea has been gained of their economic activities. It 
remains to examine into their domestic, political, and religious 
institutions, in order to discover what relation these bear to their 
economic organization. In the first place, then, what was the 
form of the Iroquois family? 

A general survey of the institution of the family among all 
primitive peoples in North America shows it existing in two 
forms. Either the father was its head and the owner of his wife 
and children ; or else the mother took the chief place and added 
her children to her own gentile group. In the former case the 
family may be said to have been paternal, in the latter case 
maternal in character : which of the two forms prevailed seems 
to have been a matter determined by the industrial organization 
of the tribe. 

In the domestic and village economies there was everything 
to favor the existence of the small paternal family. The neces- 
sity of the preservation of the species allowed the existence of 
no smaller society, while the nature of the food supply and the 
consequent method of production encouraged no more extensive 
organization. For similar reasons the man. and not the woman, 
was the ruler of the group. True, husband and wife cooperated 
in obtaining the food supply and in caring for their young ; 
nevertheless, since the woman took a less important part in the 
food quest, and since the whole group was entirely dependent 
upon the man for defense, it was in absolute subjection to his 

85 



86 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

authority. The family might come and go wherever food could 
be most easily found, sometimes congregating with other families 
in spots where the supply was plentiful, and at other times 
wandering off by itself alone ; always, however, the small family, 
with the father at its head, was both the production and con- 
sumption, and hence also the political unit of society. 

In the fully developed economy of the republican clan the 
family became merely a consumption group, while production 
was carried on by an organization of men ; hence the women and 
their children were still in economic subjection to the men, and 
the form of the family was still paternal. Every man was head 
of his own household, the lord of his wife and children, and abso- 
lute sovereign in all domestic affairs. The wife, therefore, left 
her own people and came to dwell with those of her husband, 
while the children were added to his family stock and bore his 
name. The institution of the family as it existed among the 
Plains Indians, is an example of this type of paternal household. 1 

Under the regime of the communal clan the form of the family 
changed. Here production was controlled by an organization 
composed of both men and women. The elevating effect of these 
conditions upon the position of women in domestic life was at 
once apparent. The wife was now no longer the humble de- 
pendent and chattel of her husband. On the contrary, in every 
department of social life she regarded herself, if not as his su- 
perior, at any rate as his equal. The ideals of family life preva- 
lent in the agricultural communities of the Pueblos and those 
which reigned in the hunting tribe of the Plains, were, in fact, 
diametrically opposed to each other. In the latter the father's 
power was supreme; in the former the mother was the head of 
the family, owning the dwelling and adding the children to her 
gens. Thus, while the republican clan economy led to the estab- 
lishment of the paternal authority ; on the other hand, the com- 
munal clan economy resulted in the development of the maternal 
family. 

'Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 235, 236; IT, 131; V, 183; II, 132— 
" The husband exercises unbounded authority over the person of his 
wife." 



THE FAMILY. 87 

The disappearance however, of the pat< rnal group in the agri- 
cultural community cannot be accounted for solely by a reference 
to conditions prevailing at the moment. For since men and 

women shared control of the surplus, dure was no more n 
why the mother of the family should have had any more influence 
over it than had the father. In fact, the fundamental reason for 
the existence of the maternal family lay in the conditions govern- 
ing the organization of the community when on the transitional 
stage between the hunting and the agricultural life. In these 
circumstances the women's clan, as a result of its monopoly of 
the increasingly important agricultural surplus, became the dom- 
inant power ; and hence it was in this stage of progress that the 
maternal family found its origin. Later, when the full communal 
clan economy was established, and the influence of men and 
women was really equal, the women kept the advantage they had 
gained, and the maternal family still prevailed. A study of the 
transition stage, in which the simultaneous existence of both 
paternal and maternal ideals may be observed, as well as the 
gradual supersedure of the former by the latter, is a convincing 
proof of the determining influence of economic conditions upon 
the institution of the family. 

Dr. Barton, 1 in his analysis of primitive Semitic life, has made 
a study of just such a community. Here the women's clan dom- 
inated the economic life of the oasis, while the men's clan reached 
its fullest development in caring for the flocks and in conducting 
caravans across the desert; hence in the oases the maternal, in 
the desert the paternal, type of family predominated. An exam- 
ination of Iroquois society brings to light a somewhat similar state 
of affairs. 
/ In the Iroquois village, where the women's clan carried on 
production and controlled the surplus, the maternal family pre- 
vailed. " The children," . . . says Lafitau, " belonging to the 
women who have produced them, are counted as members of the 
household of the wife, and not of the husband." 2 It was the 
mother and her relatives w r ho controlled the children, gave them 

1 Barton, " A Sketch of Semitic Origins." See pp. 38-39. 

2 Lafitau, I, 72-73. 



88 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

names, 1 brought them up, attended to their marriages and fu- 
nerals,' adopted strangers, and, in fact, managed the general life 
and activities of the household. 

Nevertheless, the men's clan was powerful enough to have a 
decided influence upon the institution of the family. It will be 
remembered that every gens was subdivided into two clans, the 
women's and the men's ; the one devoting itself to production, the 
other to defending the gentile group. Now, neither clan could 
afford to allow any of its members to marry and in so doing to 
transfer his or her services to any other organization ; yet religious 
scruples forbade marriage between members of the same gens ; 
the result was that marriage became a mere contract between 
members of different gentes, the bargain involving no obligation 
to live together ; and so the typical Iroquois household consisted 
of a number of women, their children and their male relatives, 
all members of the same gens : in other words, the family life of 
father, mother and children tended to disappear entirely. The 
overwhelming testimony of both earlier and later witnesses goes 
to substantiate the assertions just made. According to Lafitau, 3 
..." the husband and the wife do not leave their families and 
their cabins to set up a family and a cabin apart. Each remains 
at home, .... The goods of the husband do not go to the cabin 
of the wife, where he himself is a stranger." Again in the Jesuit 
Relation, it is asserted that " their marriages make only the bed 
common to the husband and wife ; each one lives during the day 
with his or her own relatives. The wife goes to her husband at 
night, returning early next morning to the home of her mother 
or of her nearest relative, and the husband does not dare to enter 
his wife's cabin until she has had some children by him." 1 

The marital relationship was acknowledged, however, by the 
rendition of certain mutual services. According to Lafitau : " Not 
only is the wife obliged to furnish food to her husband, to put 

Lowell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, p. 64; Morgan, " Anc. 
Soc," p. 71. 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 269 ; Morgan, " Anc. Soc," p. 84. 

3 Lafitau, I, 261, note 1. 
*Jes. Rel., XLIII, 265. 



THE FAMILY. 89 

up provisions for him when he goes on a journey, either to war 
or to the chase, or on a trading expedition; but she Is also 
obliged to help her husband's relatives in their field work, and 
to keep up their fire: for that there are fixed times when she is 
obliged to have a certain quantity of wood carried to the house." ' 
The husband, on the other hand, owed certain duties to his 
wife: "he is obliged to make her a mat, to repair her cabin, or 
to build her a new one when the first falls into ruins. The whole 
produce of his hunting belongs by rights to the household of his 
wife, the first year of his marriage. The following years he is 
obliged to share it with her, whether she has remained in the 
village, or whether she has accompanied him. It is to the honor 
of the husband that his wife and his children should be well 
clothed and well kept, and it is for him to see to it." 2 

" The wife's household," Lafitau 3 observes, " got rather the 
better of the bargain." " According to the common rule, it was 
considered desirable to marry a girl early ; because, besides the 
fact that the women keep up the family, whose greatest strength 
lies in the number of the children, the cabin of the woman also 
profits by the right which the wife acquires over the produce of 
her husband's hunting. On the other hand, it is not well to 
hasten on the marriage of the young men, because, before they 
are married, all the produce of their hunting, all the fruits of 
their industry, belong by rights to their own cabin. Those of 
that cabin cannot but lose by their marriage, on account of the 
new obligations that they contract toward a wife and children 
whom it is to their credit to support well. And although the 
cabin of the wife also contracts some obligations in regard to 
that of the husband, the advantages cannot begin to make com- 
pensation for those wdiich the young man brought it before being 
married. At least that is what I have noticed among the 
Iroquois." In fact, the advantage was often so decidedly on the 
side of the woman that the husband even consented to leave his 
own gens and come to live with his wife. " . . . The mother," 

1 Lafitau, I, 577. 

2 Lafitau, I, 579-580. 

3 Lafitau, I, 561-562. Cf. Jes. Rel., LXVII, 41 ; XIV, 235. 



90 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

says La Potherie, " who knows but too well the advantage of 
keeping him with her, quietly influences his mind, and it often 
happens that he never leaves her." x In such a case the husband's 
own clan retained only a formal right to certain military services 
from him ; in all his other activities he would be likely to be con- 
nected more and more surely, as time went on, with his wife's 
relatives. In short, the advantages on the wife's side of the 
marital bargain, and the occasional establishment of regular 
family life, though under the mother as the head, was evidence 
of the gradual weakening of the men's organization. When the 
process of absorption of the men's clan by the women's was com- 
pleted, as it was among the Pueblo Indians, and the full-fledged 
communal clan came into being, then the ordinary family life 
reappeared. 

The contractual relationship between husband and wife, due to 
the fact that both were members of powerful organizations eco- 
nomically independent of each other, elevated the position of the 
wife at least to one of equality with her husband. For one thing, 
the ordinary form of marriage among the Iroquois was mono- 
gamus. Few men would care to take upon themselves the burden 
of providing more than one woman with meat and skins, while 
few women would desire to supply fire-wood and corn to more 
than one husband. Exceptions to the rule sometimes occurred in 
the families of chiefs. Such men might become polygamists 
because of their desire to be influential over a large number of 
relatives and friends. Even chiefs, however, rarely had more 
than two wives. 2 

In their intercourse with each other, husband and wife were on 
an equal footing. If they could not agree, nothing was easier 
than to annul the contract between them. Divorce occurred at 
the will of either husband or wife. It was usually caused by the 
failure of one or the other to live up to the obligations involved 

*La Potherie, III, 13 sq. Cf. Lafitau, I, 577. 

2 Jes. Rel., XTLII, 139; Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 191. 

Lafitau (I, 155) says that polyandry sometimes occurred among the 
Senecas. " II en est, lesquelles ont deux maris, qu'on regarde comme 
legitimes." 



THE FAMILY 



91 



in the marriage contract. If the husband proved to 1"- a poor 
hunter, or the wife a neglectful provider, the aggrieved party 
hastened to abandon the one at fault. 1 Each one then resumed 
temporarily the position of an unmarried person, rendering to 

his own gentile group the whole product of his economic activities, 
and receiving from it in return all (he services formerly exp< 
from the husband or wife. In early times, especially when the 
couple had children, divorce was considered a rather discreditable 

remedy for conjugal infelicity ;- nevertheless, its possibility un- 
doubtedly led both husband and wife to treat each other with con- 
sideration. As a general thing, neither pretended to exercise any 
real authority over the other, each doing as he pleased in his own 
particular sphere. The husband, for instance, never seems to 
have interfered with his wife's management of the children, or the 
house, or with her disposal of her goods ; nor did she, in her turn, 
meddle in any of her husband's plans for war or hunting. Thus 
a Mohawk woman, whose husband was urging her to do some- 
thing contrary to her inclinations, finally replies : " I am my own 
mistress, I do what I choose ; and do thou what thou choosest." 3 
Any extraordinary ill-treatment of a wife might lead her to com- 
mit suicide, in order to satisfy her outraged dignity. 4 It is no 
wonder then, that the Iroquois warriors often preferred to marry 
a captive, rather than one of their own independent country- 

l Jes. Rel., XXI, 135; XXVIII, 51. 

2 Morgan, "League," 324; La Potherje, III, 13 sq. ; Perrot, p. 23. 

s Jes. Rel., LII, 133. 

*Jes. Rel., XIV, 37; XXIII, 113-118; XXXVIII, 265; XLIII, 271. 

It is interesting to compare the position of the Iroquois wife with that 
occupied by the married women, for example, among the Domestic and 
Village Economists of the North, and among the Micmacs of Nova Scotia. 
Here " the husbands treat their wives very severely ; a Frenchman, re- 
proaching one of these savages who was cruelly beating his wife, this 
barbarian replied that he was master in his own house, and that no one 
ought to have any protest to make if he beat his dog." (Charlevoix, I, 

125.) 

Again, the Jesuit Relation refers to the fact of "the men having 
eral wives and abandoning them to others, and the women only serving 
them as slaves, whom they strike and beat unmercifully, and wh( 1 
not complain." (Jes. Rel., I, 173.) 



92 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

women, since they generally found the former " more obedient 
and more pliable." 1 

The relationship between parents and children and between 
children and the gentes of their parents was the logical outcome 
of the dual clan system. Since children belonged to their mother's 
gens, their chief allegiance was to this group. They were brought 
up by their mother and her relatives to be self-respecting members 
of either the agricultural or the military clan of the maternal gens. 
The greatest care was taken not to humiliate them by severe or 
disgraceful punishments. 2 If there was any difference in the 
value set upon the sexes, it was in favor of the girls. A daughter 
was, if anything, more prized than a son, because she herself 
would increase the labor force of the women's clan, and would 
eventually add her children to the numbers of the gens. 3 From 
the very first, the Iroquois children were brought up to regard the 
gentile group as one large family, in which all the males and 
females of the same generation were looked upon as brothers and 
sisters : thus within the maternal gens, a child called all children 
of his own generation brothers or sisters ; women of his mother's 
generation were all of them his mothers ; and all men of the same 
generation were his uncles ; his mother's mothers were all his 
grandmothers ; but great-uncles were merely called grandfathers. i 

The ties between fathers and their children were naturally 
slight, nevertheless, the relationship was acknowledged in the 
terminology of kinship, and the rendering by grown sons of 
occasional military service to the paternal gens. In the latter, a 
young Iroquois regarded all individuals of his father's generation 
as his fathers ; their sisters as his aunts ; and the generation before 
them as his grandmothers and grandfathers. All young people 
of his own generation he called his cousins, since they were the 
children of his aunts ; nevertheless, the children of these cousins 

1 " The savages make no difficulty about espousing a stranger and a 
captive; nay, even, there are some who love them the more, because they 
are usually more obedient and more pliable." Jes. Rel., XXX, 277. 

2 Jes. Rel., XIV, 37; XXIII, 113-115; XXXVIII, 265; XLIII, 271. 

3 Jes. Rel., XV, 181-183. 

* Lafitau, I, 552-553 ; Morgan, " League," pp. 85-86. 
5 Morgan, " League," p. 325 ; Jes. Rel., XXVI, 297. 



THE FAMILY. <j$ 

would afterwards be reckoned his nephews and nieces, and their 
descendants would be his grandchildren. After this, the recogni- 
tion of relationship between members of different gentes would 
probably cease. Meanwhile, however, the acknowledgment of 
blood ties between the individual and his father's gens resulted in 
intercourse of no small economic advantage to both. A father 
was always ready to come to the aid of a gens to which his chil- 
dren belonged, and a son was expected to he willing to aid his 
father's relatives in their wardike operations; the result of which 
was that every Iroquois, though desiring first and foremost the 
welfare of his own gens, was at the same time interested h 
of relationship in the prosperity of several other gentes. As Mr. 
Lloyd says: "A Mohawk born of a Turtle father and a Hear 
mother, would himself be a Bear, but closely allied to the Turtle, 
and conscious of the blood tie. If he married into the Wolf clan 
. . . his children would be Wolves. Thus each of the three 
Mohawk clans would have a claim upon his regard and upon his 
tomahawk. Whoever might attack, he would fight for his father, 
his mother and his children." 1 

Quite apart from the family life of the sedentary village stands 
that characteristic of the hunting or trading expedition. In the 
village, the influence of the women's clan was predominant : dur- 
ing the hunting season the old conditions of the ordinary forest- 
hunting tribe were again met with, and social organization 
changed correspondingly. Husband, wife and children often 
went off together upon the hunting expedition, 2 and established 
the regular domestic economy as completely as if nothing else 
had ever been known. Even when a group of men hunted to- 
gether as a clan, the old paternal family was likely to reappear 
as the consumption group. In these circumstances, the authority 
of the husband was temporarily reestablished. " The Indians," 
says Mary Jemison, "are very tenacious of the precedence and 
supremacy over their wives, and the wives acknowledge it by 

'Morgan, "League" (Appendix), II, 223 (ed. 1901). 

2 Jes. Rel., LV, 253, 255, 269 ; Loskiel, pp. 78-79. 

3 " Life of Mary Jemison," pp. 140-141. Cf. Jes. Rel., XXXIII, 109; 
XXXI, 177, 179. 



94 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

their actions, with the greates subserviency. It is a rule . . - 
that a squaw shall not walk before her husband, or take the lead 
in his business. For this reason, we never see a party on the 
march, in which squaws are not directly in the rear of their 
partners." The women's clan, however, was inclined to object 
to the disintegrating influences of the hunting life, the Iroquois 
matron frequently refusing to leave the village in order to go into 
the forest with her husband. In that case, the husband might con- 
tract a temporary marriage with some young unattached woman. 
Such a union lasted only during the hunting or trading season, 
the couple eventually separating after having divided between 
them the spoils of the expedition. An arrangement of this kind 
was by no means an unusual thing. Tailhan speaks of it as a 
universal custom. According to his statement, " All the savages 
have wives for hunting trips (femmes de campagne), and also 
other wives who remain with the rest at home." 1 In this way 
the hunter sought to solve the problem caused by the conflict 
between the two productive organizations into which the Iroquois 
community was divided. But even under these conditions, the 
existence of the paternal family was made uncertain and difficult 
by the fact that the " femme de campagne " had no rights of any 
kind, and on her return to the village was generally despoiled 
of her share of the surplus by the legal wife of the hunter. 2 

It is evident, then, that economic conditions determined the 
form of the Iroquois family. In the village, where the women's 

1 Perrot, p. 23, and notes (Tailhan), p. 178. 

Cf. La Potherie, III, 13 sq. ; Barton, " Semitic Origins," pp. 70-71 — 
" From the beginning there must have been a tendency to the Republican 
clan. Expeditions into the desert with the flocks in search of pasturage, 
or caravans from place to place for the purposes of trade, would consist 
... of a considerable number of men and a much smaller number of 
women .... The women of the wealthy Arabians of the oases who 
to-day accompany their husbands on their expeditions into the desert are 
as a rule of lower social position. A princess in a harem may have it 
understood that she is to remain always in the oasis. Probably it was 
so in ancient times. Such a band of men would take with them some 
daring young women, who had not much position at home, or who were 
captives from another tribe." 

2 Lafitau, I, 585. 



THE FAMILY. 95 

clan dominated, the family was of the maternal type, the mother 
acting as its head and having entire control of the children. The 
strength of the men's clan was great enough usually to cause the 
marriage relation to take the form ol a business contract, in 
ing no common family life together. Frequent exceptions t" 
the rule, however, showed the growing strength of the women's 
clan in village life. Away from the settlement, the paternal 
family characteristic of the domestic and the republican clan 
economy tended to reappear ; but the hunting season was short, 
the wife was often merely a woman engaged for the trip, and no 
real family life was entered upon. Thus, the ultimate dependence 
of all upon the corn fields of the village allowed the women's clan 
to hold in check the men's organization, and to make the maternal 
family of the village the only one looked upon as regular and legal. 



CHAPTER II. 

State and Government. 

Mr. Morgan, in his books on " Ancient Society " and on the 
" League of the Iroquois," asserts that the gens is the unit of 
Iroquois Society. Major Powell says that tribal government 
in North America is based on kinship. 1 Mr. Lloyd 2 remarks : 
" The unit of Iroquois Society was not an individual, nor yet 
a family in one sense of the word, but a household including 
all the dwellers in one of the communal houses elsewhere de- 
scribed. These households by a process of increase and swarm- 
ing gave rise to clans (gentes) and phratries, held together by 
the natural bond of kin. Politically they were united in tribes 
and confederacies held together by the artificial bond of alliance ; 
but cemented also by the bond of kin. Thus the social organiza- 
tion of the Iroquois was developed through the separation of near 
kin, and the political organization through the union of remote 
kin." All the above writers lay stress on the kinship idea. The 
picture they draw is that of a tribe made up of three or more 
separate groups of kindred. Though often scattered about in 
separate villages and hence geographically and economically dis- 
united, each of these gentes is represented as a political unit, 
composed of individuals of both sexes, each exercising a share 
in sovereignty on the strength of his or her blood relationship 
to the other members of the group. A mere study of outward 
forms, perhaps, might lead to the conclusion reached by Mr. 
Morgan and his followers ; but closer investigation of Iroquois 
politics reveals certain fundamental peculiarities for which the 
kinship theory fails to account. Why should the women have 
exerted any special influence in the Iroquois gens when in similar 
kindred groups among fishing and hunting tribes they had no 

'"Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, p. 68. 
2 Lloyd, Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), notes, p. 217. 

96 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. 97 

power at all? Why should village have opposed itself to village 
or tribe acted as a unit against tribe, although each contained 

fragments of the same gentes? An analysis of the Iroquois 
state from the point of view of dieir economic organization leads 
to the solution of these and other problems of a like nature. It 
becomes evident that the gens as such was not a political unit : 
on the contrary, the governmental system of the Iroquois was 
but another aspect of their organization for directly economic 
purposes. Not the gentes, but the clans and the villages, repre- 
sented the fundamental units of Iroquois political life. 

An Iroquois village, it will be recalled, was usually made up 
of several gentile groups, each consisting of two more or less 
interdependent clans, the women's organization directly control- 
ling the food supply of the group, the men's acting as a sort of 
standing army for its defense. For military purposes the men's 
clans were united also into one homogeneous body. This was 
the fundamental reason for the existence of the village and tribe 
as economic units. Away from the village, it will also be re- 
membered, during the hunting season, the men's clan alone di- 
rected production and controlled the surplus. A knowledge of 
these facts makes it almost possible to describe by means of the 
purely deductive principle the organization of the Iroquois state 
and the form of their government. In the village, it would be 
expected that the women's and the men's clans would each pos- 
sess a share in sovereignty corresponding to the extent to which 
each controlled the sources of supply. Hence the women's clans 
would naturally be more fully represented in the government than 
the men's clans : in the hunting season, on the other hand, the 
men's clans alone would carry on the activities of state and gov- 
ernment. As a matter of fact, investigation proves the legitimacy 
of these a priori conclusions. 

In the sedentary village the smallest governmental organization 
was that of the gentile group. So far, Mr. Morgan's analysis 
is undoubtedly correct. But the gens in the governmental sense 
was not made up of a number of individuals of both sexes : on 
the contrary, its constituent units were the two clans, each of 
which played a distinct part in politics. Each clan had a govem- 
7 



98 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

mental council of its own, in which were discussed all matters of 
particular interest to itself. In each gens, too, the old men prob- 
ably acted as a sort of advisory body, or senate of the clans. 
Sometimes the councils were attended by every clan member, each 
one having a right to express his opinion and cast his vote. The 
conduct of ordinary affairs, however, was left to certain elected 
representatives. 

In the gentile government, the women's clan naturally took the 
lead. Among the Hurons the Council, though installed only with 
the consent of both clans, was mainly composed of members of the 
women's organization, nominated by that body. First of all, four 
women councillors were chosen by the female heads of the house- 
holds. " There is no formal election," says Major Powell, 1 " but 
frequent discussion is had over the matter from time to time, in 
which a sentiment grows up within the gens and throughout the 
tribe that in the event of the death of any councillor, a certain 
person will take her place. In this manner there is usually one, 
two, or more potential councillors in each gens, who are expected 
to attend all the meetings of the Council, though they take no 
part in the deliberations and have no vote. When a woman is 
installed as councillor, a feast is prepared by the gens to which 
she belongs, and to this feast all the members of the tribe are in- 
vited. The woman is painted and dressed in her best attire, and 
the sachem of the tribe places upon her head the gentile chaplet 
of feathers, and announces in a formal manner to the assembled 
guests, that the woman has been chosen a councillor. The cere- 
mony is followed by feasting and dancing, often continued late 
into the night." 

Among the Five Nations the female councillors of the gens 
seem to have been three in number. 2 Candidacy for the office of 
" Oyander," 3 as these officials were called, was usually a matter 
of inheritance ; that is, the three senior members of a certain 

1 Powell, " Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, pp. 61-62. 

2 Chadwick, " The People of the Longhouse," p. 36. 

3 " Oyander," Feminine form of word " Royaner," lord or nobleman, 
the title applied to chiefs. Jes. Rel., LIV, p. 308. 

Cf. Chadwick, 39. Cf. Jes. Rel., LVIII, 185; LXIV, 81. 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. 99 

family in the clan were the candidates naturally chosen, unless 
they were for some reason unfit for the position. The election 
of these gentile councillors, however, had to be confirmed by the 
gens and the tribe to which they belonged. An unworthy < lyander 
ran the risk of deposition. The Jesuit Relations tell of one such 
case. An Oyander, having become a christian and lefl her own 
country in order to dwell in a Jesuit community, was degraded 
from her noble rank by her incensed constituents, and deprived 
of her title of Oyander; at the same time another woman was 
installed in her place. 1 

From among the members of the men's clan, the women coun- 
cillors nominated a Sachem or Head Chief of the gens. 2 As a 
matter of fact, the nominee was generally the son or grandson of 
the dead chief's sister. 3 Birth, however, was no guarantee of 
election in case the candidate was unfit for the office. Thus, to 
quote from Le Jeune's narrative.* ' They reach this degree of 
honor, partly through succession, partly through election. Their 
children do not usually succeed them, but properly their nephews 
and grandsons ; and the latter do not even come to the succession 
of these petty royalties, like the Dauphins of France, or children 
to the inheritance of their fathers, but only in so far as they have 
suitable qualifications, and accept the position, and are accepted 
by the whole country. Some are found who refuse these honors, 
sometimes because they have not aptitude in speaking or sufficient 
discretion or patience, sometimes because they like a quiet life." 

After the nomination was made, the Hurons required the pros- 
pective chief to pass through a period of probation, then, if ap- 
proved by both clans of the gens and by the rest of the tribe, the 
election was confirmed and the chief installed by a feast and cere- 

1 Jes. Rel., LIV, 281 sq. 

2 The term " Head Chief " seems preferable to that of " Sachem," the 
word used by Mr. Morgan. Sachem was an Algonquin title, not used 
by the Iroquois. 

Cf. Lloyd, notes to Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), II, 217. 

3 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 195 ; Chadwick, " The People of 
the Longhouse," p. 34 sq. ; Lafitau, I, 469 sq. 

1 Jes. Rel., X, 233. Cf. Jes. Rel., XX, 215. 



100 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

monies similar to those described in the case of the Oyanders. 1 
The chief's tenure was simply a matter of good behavior. Bad 
conduct of any kind, resulting in a loss of confidence on the part 
of his constituents, was sufficient reason for his deposition by the 
Council. " The women," says Mr. Wright, " were the great 
power among the clans (gentes). They did not hesitate, when 
occasion required, to knock off the horns, as it was technically 
called, from the head of a chief, and send him back to the ranks 
of the warriors." 2 Evidently, the governmental machinery of 
the gens was largely the creation of the women's clan. Out of 
its own ranks it nominated the councillors ; and it nominated and 
deposed the chief of the gens. On the other hand, the economic 
interdependence of the two clans was reflected in the fact that 
the Chief himself was a member of the men's clan, and that neither 
councillors nor chief could be finally installed without the consent 
of the warriors. 

The functions of the gentile government were largely confined 
to matters relating to the internal welfare of the gens. The allot- 
ment of agricultural lands and the superintendence of the field- 
labor was one of its main duties. In its keeping, also, was the 
gentile treasury of wampum, skins, etc., from which were drawn 
funds for the payment of fines, ransoms, and presents, on behalf 
of the gens. 3 In cases of crime within the gens, the council fre- 
quently sat as a judicial body ; and in all transactions with out- 
siders, it attended to gentile interests. 

The hardest worked member of the gentile council was the 
Head Chief. He was the President of the Council and repre- 
sentative in chief of the two sovereign bodies of the state ; hence 
it was his duty to take the lead in all governmental activities. 4 

Lowell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, p. 62; Lafitau, I, 469 
sq. ; Morgan, " Anc. Soc," pp. 72-73; Jes. Rel., X, 235; XVII, note 7; 
XXVI, 155; XXXVIII, 265; LII, 223; LXIV, 91. 

2 Morgan, "Anc. Soc," p. 74; Morgan, "Houses and House Life," p. 
66. 

3 Lafitau, I, 474-475 — " Leur emploi est de veiller plus immediatement 
aux interets de la Nation: d'avoir l'oeil au fisc ou tresor public, de pour- 
voir a sa conservation et de presider a l'usage qu'on doit faire de ce qui 
y est contenu." Cf. ibid., I, 506. 

*Jes. Rel., LV, 55; Morgan, "Anc. Soc," p. 144. 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. IOI 

According to Lafitau, 1 "Although the chiefs have no mark ol 
distinction and of superiority, so that they cannot be distinguished 
from the crowd by any honors rendered to them, except in special 

cases, nevertheless a certain respect for them is always felt It is 
especially in public affairs that their dignity is displayed. The 
councils assemble at their summons; they are held in their cabins, 
unless there is a public cabin destined only for councils, and which 
is like a town hall ; negotiations are carried on in their name ; 
they preside at all sorts of assemblies ; they have a considerable 
portion in the feasts and in general distributions; presents arc 
often made them ; and finally, they have certain prerogatives 
arising out of the preeminence of their position, as also certain 
onerous duties which serve to counter-balance the feeble advan- 
tages that they may have in other respects." Among the " oner- 
ous duties " of the Head Chief was the ordering and regulating 
of public games and feasts for the cure of the sick and other 
purposes. 2 He saw to it that the poor and helpless of the gens 
were cared for. In cases of murder, ransoming of captives, etc., 
he carried on the negotiations between his gens and other tribes 
or gentes. 4 He was also regarded as the chief custodian of the 
Public Treasury, from which he drew, on behalf of the gens, 
whatever was necessary to be munificent. 5 The business of repre- 
senting the gens in outside affairs was no sinecure. According to 
Le Jeune, 6 "... these positions are servitudes more than any- 
thing else. A captain must always make it a point to be. as it 
were, in the field ; if a council is held five or six leagues away for 
the affairs of the country, winter or summer, whatever the 
weather, he must go; if there is anything to be made public he 
must do it." 

The political life of the tribe or village was dominated by the 
same principles that characterized the gentile government. The 

1 Lafitau, I, 474. 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 231; XVII, 201; XXIII, 185, 243; XXVI, 265; XXVIII, 
87. 
s Jes. Rel., LVII, 65; XX, 291. 
* Jes. Rel, LVII, 63. 
5 Jes. Rel., XXVIII, 87; LVII, 63. 
6 Jes. Rel., X, 233. 



102 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

tribe, like the gens, was a federation of clans economically de- 
pendent upon one another ; hence the governmental councils of the 
tribe were made up of representatives of these bodies. Accord- 
ing to Major Powell, the tribal council of the Hurons consisted 
solely of the aggregated gentile committees and chiefs : thus four- 
fifths of the council of the Huron tribe were women, while only 
one-fifth were men. 1 It must be remembered that from the mili- 
tary point of view the Hurons were not so thoroughly organized 
as were the Iroquois, while agriculture on the other hand was 
more developed among them than among the Iroquois ; hence the 
influence of the women's clan continued predominant even in the 
tribal organization of the Hurons. In the Iroquois tribal council, 
the women were less overwhelmingly in the majority. Mr. 
Morgan speaks as if the body were composed exclusively of the 
gentile chiefs. 2 Even if this were true, it would make no great 
difference in the present analysis, since the Head Chief held office 
as much by the suffrages of the female clan as of the male organ- 
ization, and was, in fact, the nominee of the former. Frequent 
remarks, however, of the old French writers, with many of whose 
works Mr. Morgan was unacquainted, lead to the belief that the 
regular Iroquois tribal councils were partially composed of women 
from among the gentile Oyanders. One of the Jesuit Relations 
speaks of a Mohawk woman " who by her noble birth is one of 
the chief women of Annie . . . one of the Otiander, and . . . 
wont to speak in the Councils." 3 However it might have been 
among the Hurons, it is certain that among the Iroquois the war- 
rior clans took a direct part in tribal government. In the eco- 
nomic life of the gens, the women's clan played the chief part ; 
consequently in the gentile government the female organization 
assumed a correspondingly conspicuous role. Tribal organiza- 
tion, it must be remembered, brought in several new factors by 
which the warrior body gained in importance: hence it was but 
natural that in the tribal council the warriors should have their 

'Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1870-1880, p. 61. 
2 Morgan, " Anc. Soc," pp. 85, 114. 

s Jes. Rel., LV, 261-263. Cf. XLIII, 299; LIV, 308; LVIII, 185; LXIV, 
81, 101. 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. IO3 

own special representatives, — namely, the " Common " or " Pine- 
tree " chiefs. This office was elective and held for life <>r during 
good behavior. Ability as a warrior, as an orator, as a councillor, 
were the qualifications for the position. The number of common 
chiefs was proportionate to the size of the population, each clan 
having a certain number. Chiefs of this rank were invested with 
office by the tribal council, as in the case of Head Chiefs. 1 

Air. Morgan speaks of these common chiefs as officials, " the 
very existence of whose office was an anomaly in the oligarchy of 
the Iroquois." To Mr. Morgan, the gentile kinship theory had 
to be all sufficient to explain every feature in the political life of 
the Iroquois, and hence any additional officials outside of the 
Head Chief and his supporters were difficult to account for. As 
a result of the subordination of the gentile to the clan hypothesis, 
it is at once perceived that the gentile council was for the most 
part the representative of but one of the two clans composing the 
gens. In the tribal council, it was but natural that the other clan 
— that of the warriors — should, as a result of their improved 
organization, at length have insisted upon having its own direct 
representatives. Hence, so far from being an anomaly, the pres- 
ence of the Common Chiefs in the governmental body of the tribe 
seems not only natural, but indeed almost inevitable. 

The tribal council of Chiefs and Oyanders, never seems to 
have taken action on important affairs, without first asking the 
advice of the Elders of the tribe. The wisdom and experience 
of these " Old Men " seem to have given them equal authority 
over both male and female clans. Lafitau speaks of the Elders as 
a regular governmental body to be compared with the council of 
Oyanders and Chiefs. 2 " After the Oyanders come the Elders 
. . . ; the number of these Senators is not determined : any one 
has a right to enter the council to give his vote, when he has 
attained to that age of maturity to which prudence and wisdom 
in affairs is attributed as a prerogative, and each one, as is the 

"Chadwick, "People of the Longhouse," p. 42; Beauchamp, "Iroquois 
Trail," p. 69; Morgan, " Anc. Soc," pp. 71-73, 145. 112; Lafitau, I, 47''; 
La Potherie, III, 12-13. 

2 Lafitau, I, 475-476. 



104 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

case everywhere else, knows how to make himself respected there, 
according as he has a greater or less degree of astuteness." 
Lafitau describes in vivid terms the meetings of the Council of 
Elders. " This council has seances which are private, and others 
which are public. The former are held to deliberate on their 
different interests, of whatever nature they may be ; and the second 
to declare publicly what has been resolved, or to discuss all the 
other affairs of the country which demand some solemnity, such 
as the reception of ambassadors, responding to them, declaring 
war, mourning the dead, holding a feast, etc. 1 . . . Those who 
are to attend the secret council are warned individually; the 
council fire is always lighted, either in the public cabin, or in that 
of a chief. 2 . . . Although there is no set time for the holding of 
these councils, the members ordinarily arrive at night fall .... 
This senate is a troop of dirty fellows, seated on their haunches, 
crouching like monkeys, with their knees up to their ears, or else 
lying on their bellies or on their backs ; and all of them, pipe in 
mouth, treat of state affairs with as much sang-froid and gravity 
as the Spanish Junta. . . . Hardly any one besides the Elders are 
present at these councils, or have any part in the deliberations. 
The Chiefs and the Oyanders would be ashamed to open their 
mouths unless they happened to possess the dignity of age in 
addition to that of office. If they are present, it is rather to listen 
and to educate themselves than to speak. Even those chiefs who 
are the most honored both for their ability and for their age, defer 
to such an extent to the authority of the senate, that they do not 
go further than to announce or to have announced the subject to 
be deliberated upon, after which they always cease to speak, say- 
ing, ' Think it over — you other Old Men ; you are the masters, do 

'Cf. Morgan, " Anc. Soc," p. 18; Jes. Rel., X, 231, 235; XV, 37; XVII, 
n. 7; XXVI, 155; LII, 223; LVIII, 185 sq.; LXIV, 91. 

2 Cf. References to Hurons; Jes. Rel., XIII, 59; XVIII, 19— " They 
have in fact no other place of meeting for transacting their affairs than 
the cabin of some one of the captains." X, 251 — " Sometimes this as- 
sembly takes place in the midst of the village, if it is summer; and some- 
times also in the obscurity of the forest, apart, when affairs demand 
secrecy. The time is oftener night than day, whole nights often being 
passed in council." 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. IO5 

you order.' . . . The manner of deliberating is characterized by 
great self-restraint and maturity. Each speaker first restates the 
proposition in a few words, and gives all the arguments which 
have been brought forward for or against by those who have 
spoken first. After that, he expresses his own individual opin- 
ion." T 

According to the usual method of procedure in important mat- 
ters, the women councillors seem to have met first, and then to 
have reported the result of their deliberations to the chi< fs. " The 
women/' says Lafitau, " are always the first to deliberate or who 
ought to deliberate, according to their principles, on particular Of 
general affairs. They hold their council apart, and in conse- 
quence of their decisions they notify the chiefs of the matters 
under consideration." 2 Similarly, in matters strictly " de leur 
competence," the warriors might hold a preliminary council, and 
report their decisions to the chiefs. The latter thereupon sum- 
moned a council of the Elders, who discussed the matter in secret 
session, and decided upon some definite course of action. Finally, 
a great public mass-meeting was often held, at which the whole 
adult population was present. 3 Here, professional orators from 
among the councillors or chiefs generally spoke in behalf of the 
different classes in the village, some for the women, others for the 
warriors. 4 The Elders were then asked to make the final deci-i' n. 
Thus even in the tribal government, the women's clans took the 
foremost part, in that they were the initiators of action by the 
council as a whole. In the subsequent discussion and decision, 
however, both clans were well represented. 

'Lafitau, I, 477-481. Cf. Jes. Rel.. X, 251 sq. ; XV, 27; X. 15—" We 
pay special attention to the Old Men. insomuch as they are the ones who 
determine and decide all matters, and everything is ordered by their ad- 
vice." 

2 Lafitau, I, 477-481. Cf. Jes. Rel., LIV, 281-283— " They hold councils 
and the Elders decide no important affair without their advice." 

3 Jes. Rel., XLII, 101 sq. ; X, 213—". . . although it is the old men 
who have control there, and upon whose judgment depend the dec: 
made, yet everyone who wishes may be present, and has the right b 
press his opinion." 

1 Lafitau, I, 481-484. 



106 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Lafitau, in one of the passages quoted above, has given some 
idea of the ordinary business carried on by the tribal or village 
council, when acting as a legislative body. According to his ac- 
count — " all affairs of the country which demand some solemnity, 
such as the reception of ambassadors, responding to them, de- 
claring war, mourning the dead, holding a feast, etc.," were dis- 
posed of by the tribal government. It was its function to deal 
with all matters of interest to the tribe as over against those which 
concerned only particular clans and gentes. According to Mr. 
Morgan, " it devolved upon the council to guard and protect the 
common interests of the tribe ; upon the intelligence and courage 
of the people, and upon the wisdom and foresight of the council, 
the prosperity and the existence of the tribe depended. Questions 
and exigencies were arising . . . which required the existence of 
all these qualities to meet and manage." x Hence " The council 
of the tribe had power to declare war and make peace, to send and 
receive embassies and to make alliances," 2 and to maintain a 
public Treasury to pay its expenses. 3 In regard to the relations 
of the community with supernatural powers, it was the duty of the 
council, under the direction of the medicine-men, to decide upon 
action and avert disease and disaster, by means of well-timed 
feasts and propitiatory offerings. 4 It was the function of the 
council to guard against attack from human enemies, by seeing 
to it that the village always had a sufficient military force in gar- 
rison. Among the trading Hurons the village council always 
determined the number of young men to go out on trading expedi- 
tions and the number to stay at home to defend the village. 
Sagard says 5 "... they do not usually undertake these long 
journeys without having first obtained permission from the chiefs, 
who, in a special council, are accustomed to determine yearly the 
number of men who ought to go from each village in order not 
to leave them entirely empty of warriors ; and whoever should 

1 Morgan, " Anc. Soc," p. 117. 

2 Lafitau, II, 310 sq. 

3 Lafitau, I, 508; II, 261-262. 

4 Jes. Rel., XVII, 167 sq.; LIII, 275; X, 231. 
5 Sagard, p. 260. 



STATE AND G0VERNM1 IO7 

desire to go otherwise, could do it as far as any restraining 
was concerned, but he would be blamed, and thought unwise and 
uncivil " — (malavise et incivil). Similarly, among the troquois a 
war expedition of any size never left the village against the will 
of the governmental authorities. On the other hand, war was 
sometimes fomented or agreed upon in cold blood by the councils 
of two or more tribes, merely in order to keep Up the spirit, and 
discipline of the warriors' organization. The most prominent 
chief of one of the Iroquois tribes forced the unwilling chief of the 
Neutral Nation to consent to such a war, silencing the complaints 
of the latter by the indignant query, " with whom, thin, he wanted 
his children to play." 1 

In general, it is evident that the legislative activities of the 
tribal council were confined to the making of special enactments 
applying to some particular occasion. Laws, in the strict - 
of the term, were not made by the council. In their place, the 
Iroquois had certain custom-made rules of conduct, looking toward 
the security of person and property and the general stability of 
the clan. 2 It was in connection with these fundamental laws that 
the Iroquois councils became judicial bodies, charged with the 
duty of investigating and punishing violations of the principles 
upon which clan life was founded. Murder, theft, adultery, trea- 
son, and witchcraft were the chief crimes to be dealt with. In 
cases where the plaintiff and the accused belonged to different 
gentes and the councils of these gentes were unable to settle the 
matter between them, the question came up before the tribal 
council. The latter then determined upon the guilt or innocence 
of the defendant, and the amount of indemnity to be paid in case 
of an unfavorable verdict. 

The regular agents employed to see to the carrying out of tin- 
legislative and executive decrees of the council were the Head 
Chiefs of the gentes, who were also councillors. 3 It was their 

l Lafitau, II. 162 sq. 

* Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1870-1880, p. 65. 

3 Mr. Morgan asserts the exister.ee of a I of officials — " The 

keepers of the Faith." These, besides performing certain religious duties, 
acted as a sort of police, reporting evil deeds to the council. ' 
Soc," p. 82.) 



108 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

duty to make formal announcement of the decisions of the council, 
and to arrange for their execution. Thus it fell to the chiefs to 
manage the inter-tribal and village games for the cure of the sick 
and other purposes, and to see to the final payment of indemnities, 
the settlement of quarrels, etc. 1 Theoretically, every gentile chief 
was the equal of every other in the tribe from the point of view 
of authority and dignity ; nevertheless, actual superiority in intel- 
lect and ability, generally gave some one chief a preeminent posi- 
tion in tribal politics. 2 In foreign negotiations this chief might 
be regarded as Head Chief of the tribe; his whole nation might 
even be referred to by his name. To quote from Le Jeune : 3 
" There is none [of the chiefs] who by virtue of his election 
is of higher rank than others. Those hold the first rank who 
have aquired it by intellectual preeminence, eloquence, free ex- 
penditure, courage, and wise conduct. Consequently, the affairs 
of the village are referred principally to that one of the chiefs 
who has these qualifications ; and the same is true in regard to 
the affairs of the whole country." 

That the chiefs and common councillors were directly repre- 
sentative of the clans, is evident from the fact that in the enforce- 
ment of the decrees of the council the chiefs needed no sanction 
behind them, except that of public opinion. Such statements as 
the following are frequent in the Jesuit Relations and elsewhere: 
" They have no government at all ; such power as the captains 
have is little more than that of criers and trumpets." 4 Or again : 
" There is no government here to make private individuals obey 

*Jes. Rel., XVII, 201. 

3 Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1870-1880, p. 62. 

3 Jes. Rel., X, 231. Cf. Lafitau, I, 471— " Quoi que les chefs paraissent 
avoir un autorite egale, qu'ils soient tous d'une attention extreme a ne 
pas paraitre vouloir attirer a soi les affaires et se rendre despotiques; il 
y a toujours neanmoins, quelque preeminence des uns sur les autres, et 
c'est autant que j'en puis juger, ou celui dont la cabane a fonde le village, 
ou bien celui dont la Tribu [Wolf, Bear or Turtle] est la plus nombreuse, 
ou bien encore celui qui est le plus considere par sa capacite. J'avoue 
pourtant que c'est ce que je ne puis pas bien decider." 

Cf. Morgan, " Anc. Soc," pp. 118-119. 

* Jes. Rel., XV, 157. 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. ICK> 

the resolutions of a council." 1 In the Jesuit Relations occur fre- 
quent references to councils Ik-M to discuss religious topics with 
the missionaries. It must be remembered that the relationship of 
the village with supernatural powers was considered as much a 
thing of public interest as its relationship with other tribes; 
nevertheless, the decisions of the councils upon these points could 
never be forced upon a dissenting element in the population- 1 
Thus in case the young men proved refractory, persuasion on the 
part of the Elders was all that could be employed to make them 
conform to the opinions and decisions of the council. To quote 
Le Jeune, " In view of the perfect understanding that reigns 
among 1 them, I am right in maintaining that they are not without 
laws.' 3 It was, indeed, what Le Jeune called " the perfect under* 
Standing between them*' that gave compelling power to the de- 
crees of the councils. Every individual warrior and every tiller 
of the fields was so merged in the clan that he could have few 
or no interests aside from it, and from the gentile body and tribe 
of which it formed a constituent part. Obviously, any action of 
his which was contrary to the interests of the organization, was 
contrary to his own interests, since there was no life for him out- 
side of the clan. The clan and gens, on the other hand, took upon 
itself all responsibility for the behavior of its individual members. 
A crime, once proved, had to be atoned for by an indemnity of 
wampum and skins, etc., paid by the gens of the offender. ' In 
case the injured man belonged to another village or tribe than 
the defendants, the fine fell upon the whole village or tribe of the 
latter, the one organization thus making amends to the other for 
the injury it had received in the person of its members. 

" They have only one method of justice for injuries." says the 
Jesuit Relations, "which is that the whole village must make 
amends by presents." 5 And again.'"' " The presents given on ac- 

1 LIII, 283, 293. Ci. VI. IS] X, 233. 2<*; LVII, 67. 

2 LIV. 35. Ci. Schoolcraft, III, 1S4-1S5. 

3 Jcs. Rel., X, 215. 

«Jes. Rel., XXXIII, 243. 

8 Jes. Rel., XV. 157. 

s Jes. Rel., XXII, 291. 



110 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

count of the death of a man who has been killed are very numer- 
ous. ... It is not usually the assassin who gives them, but his 
relatives, his village, or his nation, according to the quality or con- 
dition of the person who has been put to death." Le Jeune gives 
a long account of the formalities observed in making amends for 
crime. His description gives some idea of the trouble a law- 
breaker caused to the organization to which he belonged. " They 
punish murderers, thieves, traitors and sorcerers ; and in regard 
to murderers, although they do not preserve the severity of their 
ancestors towards them, nevertheless the little disorder there is 
among them in this respect makes me conclude that their pro- 
cedure is scarcely less efficacious than is the punishment of death 
elsewhere ; for the relatives pursue not only him who has com- 
mitted the murder, but address themselves to the whole village, 
which must give satisfaction for it, and furnish, as soon as pos- 
sible, for this purpose, as many as sixty presents, the least of 
which must be of value of a new beaver robe. The captain pre- 
sents them in person, and makes a long harangue at each present 
that he offers, so that entire days sometimes pass in this cere- 
mony." * In short, to quote again from the Jesuit Relations : 
" The trouble caused by a murderer to an entire community exer- 
cises a powerful restraint over them." 2 And again, ..." their 
justice is very efficacious for repressing evil . . . for it is the 
public who make reparation for the offenses of individuals." 3 

Obstinate adherence to a course of action injurious to the gen- 
eral welfare, simply resulted in the expulsion of the offender from 
his clan and gens. Such outlawry was as formidable a punish- 
ment to the Iroquois law-breaker as death could be to the modern 
white man. The sentence of outlawry was passed by the gentile 
and tribal councils, and might be of either one of two grades of 
severity. In one case the man is simply left without the protection 
of his gens, and his death will be unavenged : in the second case, 
it becomes the duty of any member of the tribe who meets him, to 
put him to death. 4 The outlaw generally fled to the woods, and, 

^es. Rel., X, 215, 217. 

2 Jes. Rel., XXII, 291. 

8 XXXIII, 235. Cf. XXVIII, 49; XIX, 85; XXXIII, 229 sq. 

* Powell, " Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, pp. 67 and 68. 



STATE AND GOVERNW III 

finding others in the same plight, would cast in his lot with 
them and make his living mainly by plundering. 1 According to 
Heckewelder : "Though there arc sometimes individuals in a na- 
tion who disregard the council and good advice given by the 
chiefs, yet they do not meet with support so as to be able to 0] 
the measures of government. They are generally looked upon 
as depraved beings who, not daring to associate with the others, 
lurk about by themselves, generally bent on mischief of a minor 
kind, such as pilfering small articles of goods and provisions. As 
soon, however, as they go a step further, and become known 
thieves and murderers, they are considered a disgrace to the na- 
tion, and being in a manner disowned by it, they are no longer 
entitled to its protection."-' 

Heckewelder goes on to give an instance of outlawry met with 
by him among the Senecas : 3 "When in the winter of 1788 and 
1789, the Indian Nations were assembling at Fort Harmer . . . 
where a treaty was to be held, an Indian of the Seneca Nation was 
one morning found dead on the bank of the river. The Corn- 
planter, chief of this nation, observing some uneasiness among 
the officers and people of the place, and fearing the murder might 
create undue disturbance, waited in the morning on the governor, 
whom he desired ' not to be uneasy about what had happened the 
preceding night, for the man who had been killed was of no con- 
sequence,' which statement meant that he was disowned for his 
bad conduct by his countrymen, and that his death would not be 
a loss to his nation." 

While ordinary manifestations of a non-social spirit led to the 
exclusion of the culprit from the ranks of the clan, direct treason 
resulted in his immediate execution. Treason consisted in re- 
vealing the secrets of medicine preparation^ supposed to bring 
good fortune, or in giving any other information or assistance to 
enemies of the tribe. The criminal was tried before the tribal 
council, and if convicted, was put to death on the spot. 4 Such a 

1 Loskiel, pp. 102-103. 

2 Heckewelder, p. III. 
2 Ibid., p. 112. 

* Powell, " Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, p. 67. 



112 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

person was too dangerous to society to be permitted to live, even 
as an outlaw. Witchcraft, the injury of anyone by supernatural 
means, was regarded as only a more terrible form of treason. 1 

Tribal government, then, was not merely a question of the 
orderly living together of several sets of relatives ; it was rather 
a system regulating the life of a large economic group composed 
of many smaller organizations of the same sort. It was, in fact, 
a machine created by the women's and men's clans, and controlled 
by each exactly in proportion to the amount of influence exerted 
by each in economic life. Created and operated by the clans 
themselves, with a view to their own prosperity, the system needed 
no sanction beyond public opinion. 

The government of the confederacy embodied simply a repetition 
of the principles animating gentile and tribal life ; in other words, 
it was representative of the clans of the whole country of the 
Iroquois acting in unison. For this purpose they had been grouped 
in villages and in tribes, and now these latter bodies were gathered 
together in one great nation. The governmental activities of the 
confederacy were carried on by a council consisting of the gentile 
chiefs of all the different tribes. 2 Their number, at first fifty, 
was afterwards but forty-eight, since two places of the original 
fifty were filled but once. A certain name was attached to each 
office, and during his term of service each incumbent was known 
by this instead of his own name. In a sense, therefore, the offi- 
cials of the confederacy never died. Just as the gentes and the 
tribes were immortal, so also were those who represented them 
in the government of the confederacy. Of the fifty chieftainships, 
there were nine among the Mohawks, nine among the Oneidas, 
fourteen among the Onondagas, ten among the Cayugas and 
eight among the Senecas. There were three chiefs from each 

1 See note I. Cf. Jes. Rel., LXII, 99; Morgan, "League," p. 330; Jes. 
Rel., X, 223 — " They also punish sorcerers severely, that is, those who 
use poisoning and cause death by charms ; and this punishment is author- 
ized by the consent of the whole country, so that whoever takes them in 
the act has full right to cleave their skulls — without fear of being called 
to account." 

2 Cf. Morgan, " Anc. Soc," Ch. 5 ; Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," 
III, 186; Chadwick, "People of the Longhouse," p. 33. 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. I I 3 

of the Mohawk gens, and the same from the Oneidas : the Senecas, 
on the other hand, had eight gentes, not all of whom were repre- 
sented in the council. The unrepresented gentes. however, were 
probably small and unimportant offshoots of older bodies. The 
same state of affairs is found in the other Iroquois tribes. 

In council, the chiefs voted by tribes, each tribe exercising the 
same amount of power as any other, even though it may have 
had a smaller number of representatives. Unanimity was neces- 
sary for a decision. This was generally achieved through a sys- 
tem of voting in classes. The exact principle upon which the 
classes were arranged is not clear. In all probability the matter 
was decided upon the basis of locality ; that is, if a tribe had three 
villages, the chiefs in each village would form a class, and vote 
as one man. 1 Hence the final problem would involve only the 
agreement of three votes in order to allow the tribe to vote as 
a unanimous whole. It is obvious that by this system two Bear 
chiefs, for instance, living in different villages, might find them- 
selves voting in different classes. Now if the gens, in the sense 
of a family stock, was really the unit of Iroquois politics, this 
would be impossible. Instead of voting by villages, the chiefs 
would have voted according to their gentes, all the Bears voting 
together, and so on. The chief was really the representative of 
the clan and the village, and hence was for all practical purposes 
more closely allied with the Wolf and Turtle chief of his own 
village, than with other chiefs of the same family stock, but of a 
different town. The method of voting in the council of the con- 
federacy, therefore, forms only one more proof of the fact that 
not merely blood relationship, but also, and primarily, common 
economic interests formed the tie that bound the Iroquois into a 
society. 2 

1 Cf. Lloyd, Appendix to Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), p. 215— "The 
division of the sachems of each tribe into classes, probably represents the 
original division of the tribe into villages." 

2 The Seneca Tribe voted in four classes: — Class I: Turtle chief and 
Snipe chief. Class II: Turtle chief and Hawk chief. Class III: Bear 
chief and Snipe chief. Class IV: Snipe chief and Wolf chief. 

Cf. Morgan, " Anc. Soc," p. 131. 



114 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Besides the chiefs and their aids, 1 any other clansman or woman 
could come to the council and express his or her opinion. In the 
confederacy, as in the gens, state and government were kept in 
close contact. Often, if the case was an important one, nearly the 
whole population of all the villages from near and far would flock 
to the council meeting. There, for the sake of convenience, 
women and warriors, chiefs and old men, would often hold their 
separate councils ; and eventually, through appointed orators, ex- 
press their opinions before the council of the confederacy, with 
whom lay the power of final decision. 2 

The council met regularly once a year at Onondaga, a central 
point, and regarded as the capital of the confederacy. 3 It could 
be summoned at any other time by any one of the tribes. In that 
case, the tribe in question fixed the date and place of meeting. 4 

The functions of the council were twofold. In the first place, 
it saw to it that the internal affairs of the confederacy were in 
good order ; it settled quarrels between the different tribes, in- 
vested chiefs with office, etc. : in the second place, it attended to 
the foreign relations of the confederacy; and so deliberated upon 
war and peace, sent and received embassies, and attended to the 
affairs of subjugated tribes 5 

1 Morgan, " Anc. Soc," 131-132. " Each sachem had an assistant 
sachem, who was elected by the gens of his principal from among its 
members, and who was installed with the same forms and ceremonies. 
He was styled an aid. It was his duty to stand behind his superior on all 
occasions of ceremony, to act as his messenger, and in general to be sub- 
ject to his directions. It gave to the aid the office of chief, and rendered 
probable his election as the successor of his principal after the decease 
of the latter." 

2 Parkman, "Jesuits in North America," p. lix; Morgan, "Anc. Soc," 
p. 128. 

3 Jes. Rel., LI, 237 ; Morgan, " Anc. Soc," pp. 128, 135. 

* Lloyd, Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), II, 244-245; The Huron 
council met in same manner at Ossossane. Jes. Rel., V, n. 60, p. 259, 
261 ; XIII, 37. 

5 Morgan, " Anc. Soc," pp. 133, 142-143. Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. 
Bui., No. 41, p. 383. Cf. Colden, " History of the Five Nations," p. 3 : 
" All the nations round them have for many years entirely submitted to 
them, and pay a yearly tribute to them in wampum ; they dare neither 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. 115 

The confederacy, like the Tribe, had no particular machinery 
for executing- its decisions. Anything decreed by the council 
would be carried out by special agents appointed for the purpose, 
or by each tribe as it saw fit. Certain duties were fulfilled by 
certain tribes. Thus one of the Onondaga councillors was the 
keeper and interpreter of the wampum records, while the Mo- 
hawks saw to the collection of tribute from subject tribes. There 
was no chief executive magistrate of the confederacy, since no 
member of the council could claim any higher rank than any 
other. If one were better known than another, it was not on 
account of any official distinction, but merely on account of su- 
perior ability, or fitness to represent the nation in some special 
transaction. 1 

So far, the subject under discussion has been the government 
of the sedentary community, as a whole. It must not be for- 
gotten, however, that, for a large portion of the year, the men's 
clans led a life quite apart from the life of the village, and even 
while there, they regarded themselves as more or less transient 
sojourners; hence, the warriors had a government of their own, 
distinct from that of the women's clans, and of the sedentary 
community in which the influence of the latter tended to predom- 
inate. Among the Hurons, according to Major Powell, the mili- 
tary government was completely differentiated from the civil. 2 
The former inhered in a military chief, and in a council composed 
of all the able-bodied warriors of the tribe. All councils of war 
were held in the cabin of the " great war captain," and condemned 

make war nor peace without the consent of the Mohawks. Two Old Men 
commonly go about every year or two to receive this tribute. ... It is 
not for the sake of tribute, however, that they make war, but from the 
notions of glory which they have ever most strongly imprinted on their 
minds." 

Cf. Jes. Rel., XXXI, 89; XXXVI, 105; Chadwick, " People of the Long- 
house," p. 76; Beauchamp, X. Y. St. Mus. Bui., No. 41, p. 457; School- 
craft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 185; Woodward, " Wampum," pp. 16 sq. ; 
Morgan, " Anc. Soc," p. 149; Heckewelder, pp. 56-57, 59. n- 3! Carr, 
" Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep.. 1891, pp. 518, 522. 

'Morgan, "Anc. Soc," pp. 128, 145; Jes, ReL, X. 231; XII, 53. 

'Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, p. 61. 



Il6 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

captives were tortured there. 1 Among the Iroquois, says Lafitau, 
" The warriors have also a separate council for matters which are 
in their line." 2 The commander-in-chief of the warriors was 
nominally the Head Chief of the gens. Lafitau says, " The chiefs 
of the gentes are ordinarily at their head, when they have given 
proof of prowess in military affairs, and when they are capable of 
taking command." 3 Nevertheless, the Head Chiefs were, as a 
usual thing, only the connecting link between the warriors' and the 
women's clans. Practically, the former recognized as military 
chiefs those who rendered themselves worthy of the position, be- 
ing conspicuous for feats of valor, for good conduct, and service. 
Before the formation of the confederacy, at any rate, no man 
was recognized as the w°.r chief par excellence, though the com- 
mon chiefs, who took part in the tribal council, were generally 
recognized to be conspicuous military leaders. 4 Cusick says that 
after the formation of the confederacy, when a war was under- 
taken which involved the whole country, the Bear clans selected 
the " Great Warrior " or commander. 5 Mr. Morgan says that 
there were two permanent war chiefs of the confederacy ; one 
selected from the Wolf, the other from the Turtle Clan of the 
Senecas. 6 In general, however, Mr. Morgan further says that 
" Military operations were usually left to the action of the vol- 
untary principle. . . . Any person was at liberty to organize a 
war party and conduct an expedition wherever he pleased. He 
announced his project by giving a war dance and inviting volun- 
teers. This method furnished a practical test of the popularity 
of the undertaking. If he succeeded in forming a company, which 
would consist of such persons as joined him in the dance, they 
departed immediately, while enthusiasm was at its height. When 
a tribe was menaced with an attack, war parties were formed to 
meet it in much the same manner. When forces thus raised 

1 Jes. Rel., XIII, 59. 

2 Lafitau, I, 476. 

3 Ibid., pp. 477-481. 

* Morgan, " League," p. 72-74. 

6 Chadwick, " People of the Longhouse," p. 43. 

6 Morgan, " Anc. Soc," pp. 146-147. 

7 Ibid., pp. 1 1 7-1 18. 



E AND GOVERNM] i i — 

wire united in one body, each was under its own war-captain, 
and their joint movements were determined by a council of tl 
captains. If there was among them a war chief of established 
reputation, he would naturally become their leader." * >nce made 
up, a war party, whether enlisted for a few days i feral 

years, formed a most rigid organization. Obedience to their 
chosen leaders was absolute, and desertion was punished by 
death. ' 

On the hunting expedition, the same principle prevailed as upon 
the warpath. The men's clan in each case was the sovereign 1 
Government was carried on by a council of the hunters. 1 1" any 
leader was needed, he was chosen for his merits as a hunter. 
Women, if they accompanied the party, were entirely subordinate 
to the men. 

Evidently, the government of the Iroquois was a government 
for and by the clans, acting in an assembly composed either of 
representatives or of all the members of a clan. The latter was 
so often the case that according to Mr. .Morgan -.- " It may be said 
that the life of the Iroquois was cither spent in the chase, on the 
war path, or at the council-fire. They formed the three lea 
objects of his existence, and it would be difficult to determin 
which he possessed the strongest predilection." " Practically con- 
sidered," says Schoolcraft, "a purer democracy perhaps I 
existed. The chiefs themselves had no power in ad vane 
public sentiment." 3 

The conception of absolute sovereignty resting in the clans need 
be disturbed in no way by the fact that some authorities speak 
frequently of the existence of an aristocracy among the 
Lafitau, for instance, speaks of the order of the " ' ins,' 

that is to say, noble families."' A Jesuit chronicler sa 
that " they have the nobility here as well as in France, and are as 
proud of it . . . ." 5 Again, we find mention of a woman " who 

1 Lafitau, II, 162. 

2 Morgan, "League." 107-108. 
•Schoolcraft, "Notes on the Iroquoi-." p 
4 Lafitau, I, 563. 

s Jes. Rel.. XXVI. 307. 



I 1 8 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

by her noble birth is one of the chief women of Annie . . . one 
of those who are noble and of high station." 1 The "nobility" 
here spoken of were, in fact, only the governmental officials of 
the clans. The offices of chief and councillor, it will be remem- 
bered, were usually occupied by members of some particular fam- 
ily. These people inherited office, however, only in the sense that 
their birth made them ipso facto candidates, but their candidacy 
had to be approved by the clans and confirmed by an election : 
before that occurred, their position in the community in no way 
differed from that of any other member of a clan. 

Nevertheless, the Iroquois village was by no means so complete 
a democracy as Mr. Morgan and others like to picture it. In 
every Iroquois tribe, a large part of the population was practically 
disfranchised. It has been shown that sovereignty was in the 
hands of the clan organization. Now, though every one in the 
village was associated with some gens, not everyone was a mem- 
ber in full standing of either the male or the female clan of that 
gens. On the contrary, in every gentile group there were always 
numbers of captives who, though destined perhaps to full mem- 
bership in one of the clans, were as yet still in the slave status. 
About 1680, within a year or two, thirteen hundred such captives 
were brought in from neighboring tribes. 2 Most of these addi- 
tions to the population were boys and young women and girls. 
They were given to such gentes as wished to increase their num- 
bers, and in future were regarded as belonging to that particular 
group, rather as chattels, however, than as members of the organ- 
ization. 3 The position of these captives was, for a time at least, 
not at all enviable. The gens to which they belonged would prob- 
ably protect them from injury from outsiders, but within the gens 
there was absolutely nothing to guarantee their safety. Possess- 
ing no voice in council, and no rights of any kind, they spent 
their whole time producing for the benefit of their masters. In 
return they received food and shelter as long as they were capable, 

'Jes. Rel., LV, 261-263. Cf. XLIII, 299; LVIII, 185. 
2 Jes. Rcl., LXII, 71; XXXVI, 177; XXXIX, 219. 
3 Jes. Rel., XXXI, 53; XXIV, 285. 



STATE AND GOVERNMENT. 

healthy, and obedient. An unskillful slave was sold for a song, 1 
and a sick slave was cither abandoned or killed outright. 1 The 
least cause of irritation often resulted in the death punishment. 
Young women slaves especially were *' constantly exposed to 
danger through the brutal lechery or cruelty of their masters or 
mistresses .... The only punishment for even their slightest 
faults is death," says a Jesuit chronicler.' Yet if she escaped al! 
these dangers, a young female captive might in the end hop 
marry an Iroquois, and become a matron of equal standing with 
any other. Similarly, a male captive, after the death of his tir>t 
owners, might become a freeman, might marry and have children. 
and in case of great ability, might even become a leader in the 
community. The Jesuit Relations mention one instance of the 
latter sort, when speaking of a man " formerly a captive of the 
Iroquois, and now a captain among them." 4 Just what was the 
final status of the ordinary captive blessed with no marked ability, 
is a question hard to decide. Testimony rather goes to show that 
he never became a clansman in the full sense of the word, since 
he was never allowed to vote in the council. 5 If this is so, then 
the number of disfranchised among the Iroquois must have been 
comparatively large. It must be remembered, too, that captive 
slaves were not the only individuals in an Iroquois village whi • 
possessed no share in sovereignty. With the captives must be 
classed all males who through laziness or some other infirmity 
of body or of will had fallen out of the warriors' organization 

'Father Bressani says that he was sold cheap (3,000 porcelain bea-L>. 
because of his lack of skill as a laborer and his ailments. Jes. Rel.. 
XXXIX, 77. 

*Jes. Rel., XLIII, 303. 

*Jes. Rel., XLIII, 295. Cf. XLII, 13": XLIII, 299: XLIII. 203- 
" When a Barbarian splits the head of his slave with a hatchet, they 
say : ' It is a dead dog ; there is nothing to be done but to cast it upon 
the dunghill.' " 

«Jes. Rel., XLII, 57- 

5 Jes. Rel., XLIII, 293: "... those who, having willingly submitted 
to the yoke of the conquerors . . . have become heads of families after 
the death of their masters, or have married. Although they lead a toler- 
ably easy life, they are looked upon as slaves and have no voice, 1 
active or passive, in the public councils." 



120 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

and taken to doing women's work. These effeminate men were 
not received into the women's clan, but were merely classed with 
the slaves, and not permitted to exercise the right of suffrage. 1 
A sort of temporary slavery was sometimes the fate of the 
unsuccessful gambler. A man might stake his freedom for two 
or three years, during which time the other party in the game 
employed him as a servant. Such a slave was generally well 
treated and set free again at the end of his term. 2 

It is clear that all that large portion of the Iroquois population 
which was debarred from free access to the social surplus, a 
privilege controlled by clans of which they were not members, 
were at the same time, ipso facto, kept " without the state." They 
were a disfranchised class having no share of sovereign power, 
and no voice in the government of the group to which they be- 
longed. The fact that they were gentiles made no difference in 
their lot : the essential fact was that they were not members of 
clans. The clan, then, and not the gens as such seems to have 
been the political unit in the Iroquois village ; that is to say, 
economic conditions, rather than ties of kinship or religion, de- 
cided the form of state and government among the Iroquois. 

The position of the Jugglers or Medicine-men in the com- 
munity, strengthens the hypothesis just stated. These men con- 
trolled the access to the supernatural powers without whose favor 
no activities of the clans could succeed in their purpose ; hence, 
it will be remembered, 3 the Jugglers were able to form a separate 
income class, taking from the clans a part of their surplus ; hence, 
also, they controlled political life to a certain extent, and were 
able to force their decisions upon the clans. According to the 
Jesuit Relations, it was " the highest duty of the Captains to obey 
these impostors." 4 

J Jes. Rel., XLIII, 293; LVII, 85; Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, 
P- 517. 
2 Jes. Rel., XVI, 201. 
3 Ci. Ante, Distribution. 
<Jes. Rel., XXIII, 45; XXX, 205. 



CHAPTER III. 
Religion. 

In the religious systems of all primitive peoples the- infill 
of their economic life is extremely apparent. The nature and 
relative authority of their deities, the ceremonials of their 
ship, and the organization of the worshippers, may in nearly 
every case be considered the direct consequents of certain eco- 
nomic antecedents. The savage always deifies the most con- 
spicuous sources, direct or indirect, from which he derives his 
supply of economic goods, and worships these divinities with 
ceremonies appropriate to their nature. Moreover, the form of 
organization of any given people for purposes of worship, gi ner- 
ally corresponds to their organization for purposes of production. 
In a word, the main features of the religious system of air 
ciety, as Professor Keasbey ably argues, are determined largely 
by the manner and by the method of production characteristic of 
their economy. 

The manner of production usual in the barren and jungle en- 
vironment gives rise to the lowest form of religions development, 
— a simple Fetishism. Here the nature of the food supply, at 
once so heterogeneous and so scanty, offers but small opportunity 
for the growth of the powers of observation and classification. 
The savage regards everything in nature as possessing intelli- 
gence, and therefore able to help or hinder him in his struggle 
for existence; hence the little family group, wandering perpetu- 
ally from place to place, and dependent for subsistence on 
whatever it can find, simply tries to propitiate anything and 
everything in its immediate environment which might increa 
diminish its food supply. Such a group has but little id< 
any deities outside of the material objects to lie seen around them, 
or of any specific forms of worship. Similarly, as there i- n<> 
cooperation in production, so also there is none for purposes of 



122 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

worship. In the conditions giving rise to the domestic economy, 
no organization outside of the small family is possible or desirable. 
Inevitably then, the religious life is carried on after the same 
manner, each individual having his own charms for luck, and 
performing whatever rites he may think advisable, at whatever 
time and place he wishes. The religion of the domestic econ- 
omist, then, is characterized by a promiscuous fetishism, by little 
or no development of ceremonial, and by a purely individual, or 
at most family, system of worship. 

Among more favorably situated hunting or pastoral tribes 
fetishism by no means entirely disappears ; at the same time new 
and better conditions cause an advance in religious ideas. The 
life of the primitive hunter or herder is far less hap-hazard and 
hand to mouth than that of the inhabitant of the desert or the 
jungle. The former is able to depend for food-supply on one 
or two great, and more or less reliable sources, — cattle, perhaps, 
as in the Old World, or the animals of the chase, as in North 
America. 1 These conditions tend to reduce the diversity of the 
powers to be propitiated. Instead of worshipping everything 
around him, he confines his attention to animals and to what- 
ever forces of nature hinder or help him in his pursuit or care 
of them. The hunter or herder, however, is not likely to wor- 
ship individual animals. The homogeneity of his food supply 
develops to some extent the savage's power of classifying and 
abstracting. He therefore conceives the idea of a type to which 
individual members of a species conform ; hence the type rather 
than the individual becomes the real object of worship. 2 

1 The Plains tribes of the United States looked to the buffalo, and the 
eastern Indians to the deer, bear, and other forest animals, as the chief 
means of satisfying their wants. 

2 The herder of the Old World proceeded somewhat further, worshipping 
not so much the type of the animal, as the procreative force which kept 
up his herd. The North American hunter, however, who lived on wild 
animals with the preservation of whose species he had nothing to do, was 
content with the more primitive conception; accordingly he imagined that 
each animal species was typified by some great progenitor or Elder Brother, 
and remained under this mysterious being's care. It was primarily to the 
latter that the Indian addressed his prayers and sacrifices; while he re- 



RELIGION. I23 

As to ceremonial observances, any mention of the rites of the 
herder — since pastoral life was unknown in North America— may 
be omitted and only those customary in hunting tribes considered. 
Among the latter, ceremonials of worship, though still of the 
simplest kind, are somewhat more regular and definite than those 
among the inhabitants of barren and jungle regions. Jusl as 
there is an increasing clearness in ideas of the deities, so there 
is manifest a corresponding development in the forms by which 
these supernatural powers are propitiated. 

In the republican clan economy, access to the surplus is con- 
trolled mainly by the clan rather than the individual ; hence 
the group, as such, offers prayers and sacrifices to propitiate 
whatever powers have influence upon its welfare. In other 
words, not the individual member, but the clan as a whole, under 
its regular leaders, attends personally to the religious rites and 
ceremonies deemed necessary to keep the powers in good humor. 
From the very nature of hunting life, no priestly intervention is 
needed between the clan and its gods. Ceremonies, though fre- 
quent, are not elaborate enough to confuse any clan member ; 
furthermore, in the hunting life, no special class of learned men 
is needed to direct the activities of the clan : hence no set of men, 
on the strength of superior knowledge of this sort, can assume 
authority over the rest and so become the priestly class of the 
community. In the hunting life, then, organization for purposes 
of worship is identical with that formed for production. 

Nevertheless, the existence of jugglers or medicine-men must 
not be ignored. In the worship of the deities, it is true, no 
priestly class has as yet arisen. On the other hand, the clan does 
not pretend to have any special means of communicating with 
supernatural beings, or of finding out their will : this task is left 
to the jugglers, each one of whom claims to have some special 
friend among the gods over whom he has influence; and hence 
these men in the last resort, by controlling the clan's access to tin- 
surplus, form a class above the clan, and gain great power over it. 

In the typical agricultural community, a difference in manner 

garded individual animals merely as intelligent beings on a par with him- 
self. 



124 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

and a development in method of production cause a correspond- 
ing change in religious life. Plants and vegetables are now the 
chief source of the surplus; therefore plant, rather than animal 
deities are characteristic of agricultural polytheism. Moreover, 
the opportunity of the agriculturist to observe the phenomena of 
production and growth causes an exaltation of the idea of fer- 
tility : hence as the herder of the Old World worshipped the pro- 
creative power that kept up his herd, so the agriculturist adores 
the productive and rejuvenating force that gives him his yearly 
crop of corn. At the same time, the extremely close relation 
between climatic conditions and vegetable life causes the primitive 
agriculturist to feel the deepest veneration for atmospheric phe- 
nomena, and consequently his conceptions of the weather gods 
become much clearer and more definite than those of the hunter. 

The fact that agricultural operations are carried on in regular 
succession at certain fixed seasons of the year causes a corre- 
sponding regularity and fixedness in the performance of religious 
rites and ceremonies. It is in spring and fall, the seasons of 
planting and harvesting, that the chief religious festivals take 
place. With decreasing frequency and increasing regularity of 
occurrence comes at the same time an increase in elaborateness 
of form. Where in a hunting group the favor of the gods is 
sought by means of a feast differing little from the ordinary social 
gatherings of friends, in the agricultural community the same 
end must be sought through a comparatively elaborate religious 
festival, marked by a considerable amount of form and ritual. 

In connection with the religious observances of the typical com- 
munal clan, there arises a special class of persons charged with 
the management of the seasonal festivals. This body, in arrang- 
ing the calendar of the year, grows comparatively learned in such 
simple scientific laws as are of importance to the agriculturist; 
thus there comes into existence a distinct priesthood, whose recog- 
nized function is to carry on the religious life of the community, 
and to direct to a certain extent the conduct of economic opera- 
tions. As time goes on, these men are regarded not only as 
knowing, but also as controlling the workings of natural forces. 
In the hunting tribe, each medicine-man obtains a certain power 



RELIGION. I 2 S 

over the clan, as a result of his supposed influence with some 
special divinity; but the priesthood in the agricultural s< 
forms an organized body, arrogating to itself the power of con- 
trolling natural forces in general: as a consequence, the claim of 
the jugglers, though temporarily it may stand side by side with 
that of the priesthood, finally goes down before the latter, and the 
priestly body stands forth as an autocratic power in the com- 
munity. 

To recapitulate: the hunter's religion is a polytheism in which 
the chief gods are animal types and such natural forces as are 
most manifestly of influence upon animal and human life: in an 
agricultural society plant deities take the chief place, and at the 
same time there is a more developed worship of the productive 
powers of nature and of atmospheric phenomena: among hunters, 
religious ceremonies are frequent, but exceedingly simple; among 
agriculturists, they are less frequent, but more regular and formal : 
the republican clan carries on its own worship without the inter- 
vention of a third party, although it may look to the sorcerers for 
information in certain emergencies : the communal clan is char- 
acterized by the presence of a priesthood which takes upon itself 
the general direction of all religious and even of economic activi- 
ties. 

In each of the culture stages outlined above, the natural con- 
servatism of religious feeling may cause the preservation of many 
deities and ceremonies whose genesis is to be traced to economic 
conditions long since past. A study of a people whose religion 
is characterized by such features gives much satisfactory evidence 
of the truth of the theory postulating the economic antecedents of 
religion. There is other proof, however, which is even more con- 
vincing. This proof is to be found in the analysis of the r<.!: 
of a people whose economy is in a transitional state. In such a 
society, if the hypothesis is correct, religious thought will be found 
undergoing a transitional process corresponding to that taking 
place in the manner and methods of production: and hence fea- 
tures of religion characteristic of both the older and newer econ- 
omy, will sometimes stand forth with almost equal prominence. 
That the Iroquois economy was in such a transitional stair is a 



126 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

fact too familiar to need repetition. The real question is whether 
their economic development was reflected in the growth of their 
religious conceptions. 

Many of the more modern writers ascribe to the Iroquois a 
comparatively well-developed monotheistic conception of God. 1 
On the other hand, the Jesuit missionaries, who knew them best, 
and the more careful investigations of the present day, unite in 
contradicting any such assertion. Le Jeune, for instance, says of 
the Hurons : " They have neither sought nor recognized him 
(God) except on the surface of created things, in which they 
have hoped for happiness, or dreaded some misfortune." 2 What 
Le Jeune says of the Hurons seems to have been true also of the 
Five Nations. All these tribes had many divinities of divers 
sorts ; each divinity owing its origin to some aspect of the economic 
relationship between man and his environment. 

The tendency towards fetishism, so strong among domestic 
economists, was still to a certain degree apparent in the Iroquois 
religion. The Iroquois were likely to regard all things animate 

1 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," I, 31, 32, 35 ; Morgan, " League," 149 
sq. ; Chadwick, " People of the Longhouse," pp. 134 sq. 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 159. Cf. Lloyd, notes to Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), 
IL 333 - 335- Compare with this the statement of the Sack chief (Jes. 
Rel., LVII, 283) : " We care very little whether it be the devil or God 
who gives us food. We dream sometimes of one thing, sometimes of 
another; and whatever may appear to us in our sleep, we believe that it 
is the manitou in whose honor the feast must be given, for he gives us 
food; he makes us successful in fishing, hunting, and all our undertak- 
ings." 

Cf. Also the Jesuits' assertion in regard to the Missisakiks (Jes. Rel., 
LV, 221): "Their training and the necessity of seeking their livelihood 
have reduced them to such a condition that all their reasoning does not 
go beyond what relates to the health of their bodies, and the success of 
their hunting and fishing, and good fortune in trade and in war. And all 
these things are, as it were, so many axioms from which they draw all 
their conclusions — not only as regards their residence, occupations, and 
manner of acting, but even as regards their superstitions and divinities." 

Of the Illinois, a tribe whose civilization was very like that of the 
Iroquois, the Jesuit Relation says (Jes. Rel., LXVI, 233) : " As all their 
knowledge is limited to the knowledge of animals and of the needs of life, 
so it is to these things that all their worship is limited." 



RELIGION*. 1 2 J 

and inanimate as possessing an intelligence similar to their own; 
to anything, therefore, which for the moment seemed capabl 

helping or hindering them, they were ready to give presents and 
address conciliatory and friendly speeches. < )i the Hurons, 

of the Jesuits says: "They address themselves to the Earth, to 
Rivers, to Lakes, to dangerous Rocks, . . . and believe that all 
these things are animate." 1 On the way to Quebec particular 
rocks were often invoked by the Hurons. 2 Among the Five 
Nations the same custom prevailed in regard to the rocks along 
certain routes. 3 In general, however, individuals of any par- 
ticular class of objects were not regarded as supernatural beings, 
but rather as reasonable persons, to be treated like ordinary men. 
As an example of this, there may be cited an occurrence among 
the Pottawatamies on Green Bay. A young man of this tribe 
was killed by a bear. Thereupon, his friends and relatives made 
Avar on the bears, killing five hundred, " as satisfaction for the 
death of that young man who had been so cruelly treated by one 
of their nation." 4 

Notwithstanding this tendency towards fetishism, the Iroquois 
inclined more and more to the worship of types or abstractions of 
classes of objects or beings, than to the adoration of individual 
specimens. Their life as hunters had changed their religion from 
a mere fetishism to a fairly well developed polytheism. Their 
hunting life, in the first place, had led to the apotheosis of various 
animal species. Every species of animal was supposed to have a 
great progenitor or " elder brother, who is, as it w-ere, the source 
and origin of all individuals, and this elder brother is wonderfully 
great and powerful." 5 To see one of these in a dream meant luck 
in hunting. Besides cherishing a general respect for all animal 
species, each Iroquois gens, 6 furthermore, chose a particular one as 

1 Jes. Rel., X, 159. Ci. Jes. Rel., X, 167; VIII. 121 ; LXVIII. 47- 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 165. 

3 Jes. Rel., XLIV, 25-27. Ci. V, 285; XIII, 270-27 1 : XXXIII. 225. 

<Jes. Rel., LX, 153. 

'Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1S80, p. 65; Chadwick, 
" People of the Longhouse," pp. 83-84. 

6 The Ball gens is an apparent exception. But this group was probably 
a subdivision of the " Small Turtle." See Chadwick, " People of the 
Longhouse," p. 84. 



128 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

its special symbol and tutelary gocl. These divinities represented 
classes of animals of use in satisfying vital wants, or else having 
some less direct influence, beneficial or otherwise, upon economic 
welfare. The Iroquois legend of the origin of gentile totems 
probably tells the exact truth in the matter. Mrs. Smith, in her 
paper on " Myths of the Iroquois," relates as follows : " Later, as 
the numerous families became scattered over the state, some lived 
in localities where the bear was the principal game, and were called 
from that circumstance the clan of the Bear. Others lived where 
the beavers were trapped, and they were called the Beaver clan. 
For similar reasons, the Snipe, Deer, Wolf, Tortoise, and Eel 
clans received their appelations." x Not only each gens, but also 
each village possessed its special symbol and tutelary divinity, 
quite unconnected with the gentile totems. 2 Every individual, 
likewise, had his tutelary demon, to which none was more devoted 
than the hunter, who, having made his selection, after retirement 
into the forest, rigorous fasting, and observance of dreams, 3 
thenceforth during his life offered to this special divinity prayers 
and sacrifices through means of various symbols which he con- 
sidered appropriate. 4 

Just as hunting life had caused the apotheosis of certain animal 
species, so the growing importance of agriculture among the Iro- 
quois led gradually to the deification of those plants upon which 
the people depended for vegetable food. The most prominent of 
these divinities were the spirits of maize, of beans, and of pump- 
kins. These were called " The Three Sisters," and were the ob- 
jects of special reverence. Other spirits, even to that of the 
strawberry, were also worshipped, and thanked for their services. 5 

The adoration of plant life was common to all the Iroquois 
settlements. Plant deities differed from animal deities, however, 

'Smith, "Myths of the Iroquois," Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, p. 76. Ibid., 
p. 77- — Some gentes even went to the length of claiming these divinities 
as their own ancestors. Cf. Lloyd, Morgan's "League," II, 218. (Ed. 
1901.) 

2 Chadwick, " People of the Longhouse," p. 85. 

3 Lafttau, I, Jes. Rel., XIII, 270; LVII, 277. 

4 Cf. Jes. Rel., LVII, 277. 

5 Payne, " History of America," I, 464, note 1. 



RELIGION. 1 29 

in this: individuals, gentes, and villages, — all chose certain animals 
as objects of their special worship; whereas plants were wor- 
shipped by all alike. This will appear Strange when it is remem- 
bered that the Iroquois were at the time of the Discovery, even 
more dependent on agriculture than on hunting for a livelihood. 
The reason for the predominance of animal deities may probably 
be found in the undeniable conservatism of religion. Agriculture, 
as the newer manner of production, had as yet failed to disli 
the older divinities of the hunting life from their topmost place in 
the scale of importance. Eventually, if Iroquois civilization had 
been allowed to grow on undisturbed, we might have found new 
settlements taking maize or the bean or the pumpkin, instead of 
the bear or the wolf or the deer, as their tutelary divinity. 

The Iroquois worshipped not only the spirits of plants and 
animals representing the direct sources of their supply, but also 
the more conspicuous natural phenomena influencing their welfare. 
The sky, the sun, the rejuvenating power of nature, rain, and 
warm winds were adored as blessing-bringing deities; frost, hail, 
and cold winds were propitiated as harbingers of evil. 

The sky and the sun would naturally be regarded as divine 
powers by the most primitive people. Without air and light 
and warmth, it was perfectly obvious that both they and all 
animals and plants would perish: hence they came vaguely to re- 
gard sky and sun as creating and ruling over all living things. 
Le Clerq says that the Gaspesiens, a wild forest hunting and 
fishing tribe near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, worshipped the 
sun as the author of all things. At dawn and at dusk they came 
out of their cabins, turned their faces toward the sun, and saluting 
with voice and gesture, made a prayer for prosperity in war and 
in hunting and fishing, for health for themselves and their fam- 
ilies, etc. 1 The Souriquois, a Nova Scotian tribe, also believed 
in a god whom they called by the same name as the sun and 
whom they invoked in times of great need, saying, ' Our Sun. or 
our God, give us something to eat." 2 These nomad hunters, 

*Le Clercq, 165 sq. 

2 Jes. Rel., Ill, 133. Cf. Accounts of Quebec Indians: Jes. Rel.. IV. 
203; V, 35; 153, note 41. Also Jes. Rel., VI, 161. 163, 173; XXXIX. 15; 
9 



130 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

however, had but very indistinct ideas of the divinities they in- 
voked. Had the Iroquois remained merely hunters and warriors, 
their notions might have been no less faint and obscure. But to 
them as semi-agriculturists, the vital importance of sunlight, air 
and moisture was ever increasingly apparent. Whether a sum- 
mer was warm or cool, cloudy or clear, whether frosts came early 
or late, was of immensely greater importance to them as agricul- 
turists than as hunters. Hence the Iroquois had formed some 
fairly clear conceptions of the different supernatural beings in 
whom they saw personified the several phenomena so influential 
in their economic life, and around these deities they had assembled 
a well developed series of legends and beliefs. 

The foremost of the Iroquois divinities was the Sky, per- 
sonified as Taronhiawagon, the Holder of the Heavens and the 
Master of Life, declaring his will in dreams. 1 To the Hurons, 
the Sky was " a power which rules the seasons of the years, 
which holds in check the winds and waves of the sea, which can 
render favorable the course of their voyages and assist them in 
every time of need." 2 If a man was drowned, if an unseasonable 
frost injured the maize crop, the Hurons believed that it was all 
due to the anger of the Sky. To both Hurons and Iroquois 
proper, the Sky tended to take the place corresponding to that 
of Jove in Greek mythology. 

Agreskoui, the other great divinity of the Iroquois proper, 
seems to have been a personification of the Sun, as distinct from 
the Sky. Agreskoui was also regarded as a god whose influence 
was to be felt on every side. He, too, like Taronhiawagon was 
called " Master of Life," and continually invoked " in the forests 
and during the chase, on the waters and when in danger of ship- 
wreck." To him the first fruits of every enterprise were always 

L, 285; Perrot, Ch. 5, notes, p. 276; Schoolcraft, "Hist. Ind. Tribes," V, 
64; La Potherie, I, 121. 

'Jes. Rel., X, 323; LIV, 65; LV, 61; VIII, note 36. Hale, "Iroquois 
Book of Rites," in Brinton's " Library of Aboriginal American Litera- 
ture," No. 2, p. 74. Parkman, "Jesuits in North America," Vol. I, 
Introd., p. lxxvii. 

2 Jes. Rel., 161 sq. 



RELIGION. I 3 I 

offered. 1 Warriors, too, regarded the sun as their special god, 
and occasionally offered him the flesh of captivi 

Taronhiawagon and Agreskoui, however much the conception 
of them may have heen clarified by the agricultural experienc 
the Iroquois, were evidently personifications of the sky and the 
sun, which took their rise primarily in the mind of the hunter and 
warrior. The forces of nature manifesting themselves especially 
in regeneration, growth, and prosperity in both animal and \ 
table life, seem to have been personified in Jouskeha, a g< 
Huron origin, but venerated by all the Iroquois. Most investi- 
gators regard the adoration of Jouskeha as simply another aspect 
of sun-worship. Mr. Hewitt, on the other hand, insists that 
Jouskeha represented not the sun in particular, but the r< 
ductive and rejuvenating powers of nature. 3 The Iroquois 
legends themselves are somewhat obscure on this point. The 
version cited by Mr. Hewitt makes Jouskeha the grandson of 
Eyatahentsic, the wife of Taronhiawagon. According to this 
account, Jouskeha is the grandson of the Sky and of the Earth, 
and has nothing in particular to do with the Sun. But whether 
Jouskeha is regarded as simply another personification of the 
powers centered in the Sun, or whether it is believed that he 
represented to the Iroquois something quite distinct from the 

'Jes. Rel.. V, 286; XXXIII, 225; XXXIX. 207; LIII, 225; LVII, 07. 
Parkman, "Jesuits in North America," Vol. I. Introd.. p. Ixxvii. 

2 Subordinate to the sun in this capacity were two other war gods. 
Among the Iroquois the subordinate deity was Echo. This God, accord- 
ing to Mrs. Smith, "only exercised his power during their wars with 
other tribes, in which by repeating among the hills their cries of Go-weh, 
he insured their almost certain victory. He was even honored with spe- 
cial Thanksgiving. ("Mythology of Iroquois," Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, p. 

52.) 

The Hurons recognized another god of war. This deity, Le Jeune 
". . . they imagine as a little dwarf ... he appear-* to many when they 
are on the point of going to war. He caresses some — a sign — that they 
will return victorious; others he strikes upon the forehead, and tlx 
truly say that they will not go to war without losing their lives. 
Rel., X, 183.) 

3 Hewitt, " Cosmogonic Gods of the Iroquois," American Assoc Adv. 
Sci. Proc, 1895, PP- 241-250. 



132 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Sun, is really not a matter of great moment. The essential 
point is that in Jouskeha the Iroquois evidently embodied those 
mysterious forces of reproduction and growth, whose impor- 
tance, though perceptible to him as a hunter, became increas- 
ingly obvious as he came to depend more and more upon agri- 
culture as the source of his food supply. Jouskeha was par 
excellence the beloved and beneficent deity of the Hurons and 
Iroquois. 1 He created the earth and everything in it. To 
his activity were due the lakes and streams with their fish, the 
woods with their game, and the fields with their crops of maize 
and pumpkins. He sent the refreshing showers and the warmth 
necessary for the growth of plants. To him, also, mankind owed 
the knowledge of fire. Like a man he grew old, but in a moment 
he could rejuvenate himself, and become a young man of twenty 
or thirty years ; thus, though to some extent subject to the weak- 
nesses of humanity, Jouskeha never died. To him no prayers or 
sacrifices were made, since his benevolent nature demanded no 
propitiation. 2 

*Jes. Rel., V, 285, 286; VIII, 117, 303; X, 129, 133, 135 sq., 323; XLII, 
149; Perrot, " Memoires," n. 161 (Tailhan). Parkman, "Jesuits in North 
America," Vol. I, Introd., pp. lxxv-lxxvii. 

2 " Moreover, they esteem themselves greatly obliged to this personage ; 
for, in the first place, according to the opinion of some — without him we 
would not have so many fine rivers, and so many beautiful lakes. In the 
beginning of the world, they say, the earth was dry and arid; all the 
waters were collected under the armpit of a large frog, so that Jouskeha 
could not have a drop except through its agency. One day, he resolved 
to deliver himself and all his posterity from this servitude; and in order 
to obtain this, he made an incision under the armpit, whence the waters 
came forth in such abundance that they spread throughout the whole 
earth, and hence the origin of rivers, lakes, and seas. . . . They hold 
also that without Jouskeha their kettles would not boil, as he learned 
from the Turtle the process of making fire. Were it not for him, they 
would not have such good hunting and would not have so much ease in 
capturing animals in the chase, as they now have. For they believe that 
animals were not at liberty from the beginning of the world, but that 
they were shut up in a great cavern, where Jouskeha guarded them. . . . 
However, one day he determined to give them liberty in order that they 
might multiply and fill the forests, — in such a way, nevertheless, that he 
might easily dispose of them when it should seem good to him. This is 



RELIGION. I33 

In Nature, it is obvious even to the savage eye that a constant 
struggle goes on between positive and negative forces. Hence 
as in Jouskeha the Iroquois reverenced the productive and re- 
juvenating power in Nature ; so in Ataentsic, his mother — or 
according to some legends, his grandmother — and in Tawiscara, 
his twin brother, they embodied their fear of the destructive 
elements which so often spoiled their hunting and mined tln-ir 
crops. According to Mr. Hewitt's version of the tale, Ataentsic, 
the wife of Taronhiwagon, fell from the sky upon the back of a 
turtle, where she gave birth to a daughter, who in turn gave birth 
to twin sons, Jouskeha and Tawiscara. Ataentsic, Mr. Hewitt 
thinks, is a personification of the night and the earth, while her 
daughter is to be identified with the moon. Other legends, how- 
ever, contain no mention of Ataentsic's daughter, but make 
Ataentsic herself the mother of Jouskeha and Tawiscara, and the 
personification of the moon. In any case, Ataentsic is generally 
regarded as the goddess of disease and death: Tawiscara, with 
whom Jouskeha carried on a mortal struggle, represents all that 
is destructive in frost, hail, ice, etc. In all that the latter did, he 
was aided by Ataentsic. The idea of the powers of disease, 
death, and night combining with the powers of cold and damp- 
ness to work destruction to life on the earth would arise naturally 
in the savage mind. As Mr. Hewitt says, " the effects of frost 
and cold are best seen in the morning, when the god of ice and 

what he did to accomplish his end. In the order in which they came 
from the cave, he wounded them all in the foot with an arrow. How- 
ever, the Wolf escaped the shot; hence, they say, they have great diffi- 
culty in catching him in the chase. 

They pass yet beyond this, and regard him as profane Antiquity once 
did Ceres. According to their story', it is Jouskeha who gives them the 
wheat they eat; it is he who makes it grow and brings it to maturity. 
If they see their fields verdant in the Spring, if they reap good and 
abundant harvests, and if their Cabins are crammed with ears of corn, 
they owe it to Jouskeha. I do not know what God has in store f 
this year; but to judge from the reports going round, we are tlire 
in earnest with a great scarcity. Jouskeha, it is reported, has been 
quite dejected, and thin as a skeleton, with a poor ear of corn in his 
hand."— Jes. Rel., X, pp. 135 sq. 



134 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

cold has accomplished his nefarious work under cover of dark- 
ness." 

Though the conception of the creative and destructive forces 
in nature as supernatural beings, was evidently clarified and 
extended by agricultural life, it seems to have proceeded orig- 
inally from hunting experience. On the other hand, certain 
specific phenomena seem to have been deified by the Iroquois 
purely as a consequence of their increasing attention to agricul- 
ture. The chief of these were rain, and the west and north 
winds. Summer showers so necessary for a successful harvest, 
and often coming in the shape of thunder storms, were worshipped 
in the person of He-no, the Thunderer. This god the Iroquois 
always called " grandfather." They invoked him at seed time 
and rendered him public thanksgiving at the Harvest celebration. 
The west wind was revered as the brother of He-no, since the 
two together brought rain. The north wind, on the other hand, 
which often brought frost to kill the unripe corn, was feared and 
propitiated as an evil deity. 1 The earth, though perhaps in the 
purely hunting stage identified to some extent with Ataentsic, the 
evil deity, gradually, as the Iroquois depended more and more 
upon the food produced by their fields, came to be reverenced as 
their mother and bountiful benefactor. " We return thanks," ran 
the Seneca prayer, "to our mother, the earth, which sustains us." 2 

It seems clear, then, that the religion of the Iroquois was not 
monotheistic in character. Neither was it marked by a well 
developed polytheistic hierarchy, such as is characteristic of a 
nation in which the religion of one group has been super- 
imposed upon that of another, a conquered people. In fact, 
the Iroquois creed acknowledged but a simple polytheism, in 
which many divinities stand side by side, each claiming a certain 
amount of veneration from the savage worshipper. In their 
nature and attributes, these deities reflect the transitional state 
of the Iroquois economy. It must be remembered that a part of 
the Iroquois population still consisted of hunters and warriors ; 

1 Morgan, " League," pp. 149 sq. ; Smith, " Myths of the Iroquois," Eth. 
Rep., i88o-'8i, p. 154. 

2 Morgan, " League," pp. 219-221. 



RELIGION. 135 

this fact, taken together with that of the conservatism of religious 
tradition, accounts for the prominence of deities whose origin 
must be traced to the wants and satisfactions of the hunting life: 
yet, undoubtedly, many of these conceptions had been changed 
and extended as a result of the growing importance of cultivated 
plants in the estimation of the Iroquois. Furthermore, certain 
deities, the worship of which goes back to an exclusively agri- 
cultural origin, had been added to the already existing group, as 
the result of years of maize culture on the part of a portion of 
the population. In the case of the Iroquois, therefore, it seems 
justifiable to assert that the nature of the deities they worshipped 
was the logical outcome of the manner in which they carried on 
production. 

The ceremonies by which the Iroquois deities were worshipped 
are to be classified under as many headings as the deities them- 
selves ; that is to say, there is one form of worship which was 
universally accorded to the hunting divinities ; another sort which 
belonged primarily to those connected with agriculture. 

The religious rites observed by the Iroquois, as hunters, were 
frequent and simple. Hunters and warriors pursue their calling 
practically all the year round, and so feel more or less constantly 
their dependence upon the powers governing their economic 
welfare. As the conception of the importance of these deities 
was extended under the influence of agricultural life, the fre- 
quency of these ceremonies increased, until almost every activity 
of individuals or villages was accompanied by some act of wor- 
ship. Among the Hurons, writes a Jesuit father. "... their 
remedies for diseases; their greatest amusements when in good 
health; their fishing, their hunting, and their trading; the suc- 
cess of their crops, of their wars, and of their council: — almost 
all abound in diabolical ceremonies." l Hardly any feast was held 
at which some tobacco or fat was not thrown into the fire 
mark of respect to some deity or deities. 5 Most of these offerings 
were to the Sky and Sun. Among the Hurons a sacrifice 
bacco was made to the Sky for a successful maize crop, and to the 

^es. Rel., XXVIII, 53- 

*Jes. Rel., X, 159, 324; XXXIX, 13; LI, 183. 



I36 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Sun and Moon for success in war and hunting 1 The Iroquois 
proper were in the habit 2 of taking the leg of a deer or bear or 
some other wild beast, rubbing it with fat, and throwing it on the 
fire ; at the same time praying the sun to accept their offering, to 
light their paths, to lead them and give them victory over their 
enemies, to make their corn grow, and to give them a successful 
hunting or fishing season. To Agreskoui, some of the flesh of 
the first deer killed on the hunt, or of the first fish caught by the 
fishing expedition was dedicated by the Iroquois. 3 Tobacco and 
game, however, were not the only offerings made to the Sky and 
Sun. According to Lafitau, 4 " Our Iroquois sometimes place in 
the open air, on top of their cabins, branches and collars of per- 
celaine, clusters of their Indian corn, and even animals that they 
consecrate to the Sun." The Jesuit Relations testify, further, to 
the fact of occasional human sacrifices to Agreskoui in his capacity 
of War God. On one occasion, a female captive was killed, 
while " an old man cried in a loud voice, ' Aireskoi, we sacrifice 
to thee this victim that thou mayest satisfy thyself with her flesh, 
and give us victory over our enemies.' " 5 As a general rule, 
however, human sacrifices did not occur in Iroquois worship. 
Offerings for the most part consisted of meat, maize, tobacco and 
wampum, and were made at pleasure by any who so desired. Be- 
sides sacrifices, the Iroquois used dances and feasts as a means of 
propitiating supernatural powers. Among the Hurons, especially, 
nearly all formal dances were essentially religious rites, abounding 
in ceremonies. 6 Feasts for religious purposes were constantly 
being given, — for instance, to restore virtue to a charm supposed 
to bring good luck in hunting, or to effect the cure of the sick. 7 
Fasting, as well as feasting, played no small part in the life of 

1 Jes. Rel., XXIII. 55; LVIII, 181. 

2 Carr, "Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 551. Cf. Jes. Rel., X, 159; 
XXXIX, 13. 

3 Jes. Rel., XXXIX, 209. 

4 Lafitau, I, 179. Cf. Jes. Rel., XLII, 197. 

5 Jes. Rel., XXXIX, 219; cf. Jes. Rel., XIX, 71. 

6 Jes. Rel., XVII, 129, 163, 155-157. 

7 Jes. Rel., X, 209; XX, 51; XVII, 209; XIV, 61 sq.; LVII, 123; LX, 
187. 



RELIGION. 



157 



the Iroquois hunter and warrior. The practice of Easting was 
based partly on the idea of propitiating the gods by such a sacri- 
fice of personal comfort in their honor: but the main cause of its 
continuance was probably the dreams and visions which naturally 
resulted from excitement and weakness induced by starvation. 
The object was to bring favorable dreams, and give the power 
of seeing and understanding things above the ordinary compre- 
hension. Long fasts were thus often undertaken to insure luck- 
in games, in hunting, and in war. 1 All these sacrifia 
dances and fasts, it must be remembered, took place at any time 
that it pleased an individual or a group, or seemed to he advisable 
for the welfare of the community. This sort of worship, char- 
acteristic of the religion of a hunting people, was quite impromptu, 
and was constantly going on. 

Maize culture, and the rise of religious conceptions based on 
agricultural experiences, led to the institution among the Iro<; 
of a new and additional series of religious observances. Certain 
great festivals were now held in honor of the plant deities and 
the forces influencing plant life. Owing to the very nature of 
the agricultural life, with its fixed seasons devoted to sowing, 
cultivation and harvest, the festivals celebrating these important 
events took on a fixed and regular character and were conducted 
according to a comparatively formal ritual. Of the six or eight 
great annual religious festivals of this nature, the most impor- 
tant were the Planting, the Green-corn and the Harvest celebra- 
tions. The celebration held in spring at the corn-planting si 
lasted for seven days, each day occupied with a regular program 
of feasts, dances, and ceremonies of various sorts. Their object 
was in the main to invoke the gods for the success of the crop. 2 
The Green-corn festival followed next in order of importance. 
This, too, lasted several days, and was marked by a regular suc- 
cession of prayers, dances and feasts. It was a time of thanks- 
giving "to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. to the corn 
and to her sisters, the beans and the squashes, which givi 

1 Jes. Rel., X, 189, 199, 203-205, 207; XII, 69; XXIII. 155; I.VH. 

2 Morgan, "League," pp. 193, 196; Smith, "Myths of the 
Eth. Rep., i88o-'8i, p. 115. 



I38 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

life, ... to the sun . . . that he looked upon the earth with a benefi- 
cent eye. ..." This was the gala season of the Indian year. 1 
Another festival took place at the time of the final harvest, when 
the ripe corn was gathered in. The Indian name of this feast 
signified " thanksgiving to our supporters " [the corn, the bean 
and the squash]. 2 The celebration lasted four days, and was 
a time of general rejoicing. Similar festivals, though of less 
duration, celebrated the coming of the maple sugar and straw- 
berry seasons. 3 

It is clear that the existence of two sets of deities, the one 
hunting, the other agricultural, led to the rise of two varieties of 
religious observances. The one, characteristic of the hunting life, 
was marked by few ceremonies, and was almost constantly in 
evidence ; the other was the outgrowth of agricultural conditions. 
Worship, in the latter case, was carried on by means of festivals 
occurring at fixed and relatively far distant intervals, and char- 
acterized by a considerable amount of formality. 

For purposes of worship, the organization of the Iroquois was 
still largely that characteristic of the republican clan. All 
worship except that of the tutelary divinity of each person was 
carried on, not by the individual, but by the economic organization 
to which he belonged. In religion, as in production, the individ- 
ual Iroquois enjoyed no great importance. Feasts, dances, and 
rites of any great significance, were carried on by the gens, the 
village, or the whole tribe, according as the object to be accom- 
plished was more or less local ; 4 in an act, therefore, of propitia- 
tion or thanksgiving in which the whole village was interested, 
the affair became one of general participation. In such events 
all the gentes were likely to take part, the members of each wear- 

1 Carr, " Mounds," Sm. Inst. Rep., 1891, p. 551 ; Morgan, " League," pp. 
198 sq. ; Smith, "Myths of the Iroquois," Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, p. 115. 
The Green-corn festival of the Iroquois was the less developed form of 
the Great Feast of the Busk observed by the Gulf State Indians. 

2 Morgan, "League," pp. 206-207; Smith, "Myths of the Iroquois," Eth. 
Rep., 1880-1881, p. 115. 

5 Morgan, " League," pp. 187, 197. 

4 Morgan, " Anc. Soc.," p. 82 ; Powell, " Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 
1879-1880, pp. 64, 65; Jes. Rel., XLII, 197. 



RELIGION. I39 

ing the peculiar adornments of the gens, such as tatooed designs, 
chaplets, and ornaments of various sorts; the ceremonies being 
arranged and directed by the chiefs, who found such duties nol 
the least onerous of those connected with their office; 1 and thus 
the clans and villages under the direction ,,]" their chiefs carried on 
the religious as well as the productive activities of the community. 

Yet, there were, at the same time, indications of the develop- 
ment of a priestly order such as is usual in the typical communal 
clan. Air. Morgan says that for the management of the great 
agricultural festivals there was associated with the chiefs a bod) 
of people called " Keepers of the Faith." 2 These were equal in 
number with the chiefs, and were elected by each gens, ju 
were the chiefs. After their election, they were installed with 
suitable ceremonies by the tribal council, and given new n 
significant of their office. Men and women were chosen in alx >ut 
equal numbers, the females being charged with the duty of pre- 
paring the food consumed at the festivals. It was nol 
to refuse the office, but after a reasonable period of service, the 
incumbent might resign, dropping his official name and resuming 
the one he originally bore. Consequently, though the ceremonies 
attendant upon hunting life demanded the creation of no special 
officials, the greater regularity of agricultural life resulted in the 
rise of a set body of a quasi-priestly character. These Keepers 
of the Faith, however, were as yet merely elected representatives 
of the clan; and hence one is justified in concluding that a' 
the Iroquois, the organization of worshippers was identical with 
that already in existence for purposes of production. 

The secret societies of the Iroquois were perhaps merely an 
extra manifestation of the spirit of clan and tribal worship. 
Their relation to the latter organizations, however, is not en- 
tirely clear. Perhaps it may be concluded with Mr. Morgan, that 
there was one such society in each phratry. 8 Apparently. Imw- 

1 Jes. Rel., X, 231; XVII, 201; XXI II, 109, 185. 243 J XXVI, 

XXVIII, 87. 

2 Morgan, " Anc. Soc," p. 82. not. 2. 

8 Morgan, "Anc. Soc," p. 07. The phratry. a subdivision of t It 
quois population becoming prominent only in religious and social life. 



I4-0 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

ever, not everybody in the phratry belonged to the society. In 
these associations men and women seem to have been on an equal 
footing, all being under oath to keep secret the mysteries of the 
organization. Each society had its own dances and ceremonies 
which it performed upon request for the cure of the sick and for 
other like purposes. 1 Anyone who had been the object of one of 
these rites thenceforward belonged to the fraternity by which it 
had been performed. Le Jeune tells of a Huron who upon the 
manifestation of certain symptoms was " declared to belong en- 
tirely to the Brotherhood of Lunatics . . . ; the remedy which is 
used in this disease ... is the dance they call Otakrendorae ; the 
brethren they call Atirenda." ~ 

Of all the organizations hitherto spoken of not one professed 
to exist for any other purpose than that of worship. Propitiation 
and praise were their functions, and they did not profess to have 
any special means of knowing the will of the gods. This latter 
power, on the contrary, was supposed to belong to individuals, 
especially to those gifted ones known as sorcerers, jugglers, or 
medicine men. 

Every adult Iroquois regarded his or her dreams as special 
messages sent by Taronhiawagon and the multitude of dream 
spirits subordinate to him. 3 If a hunter dreamed that a feast was 
necessary in order to insure a good hunting season, he would 
inform the chiefs and instantly the whole machinery of the com- 
munity would be set in motion and a great feast given. Any one 
who refused to carry out a dream, even though it concerned only 
the welfare of the individual dreamer, " draws upon himself the 
hatred of all the dreamer's relatives, and exposes himself to feel 
the effects of their anger." 4 The Hurons were even more super- 
Each tribe had two phratries, made up of several gentes, probably all 
subdivisions of an original gens. 

Cf. Powell, "Wyandot Gov't," Eth. Rep., 1879-1880, pp. 60 sq. ; Morgan, 
" Anc. Soc," pp. 90-101. 

'Jes. Rel., XXX, 23; LXIII, 306; XVII, 197. 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 207. 

3 Jes. Rel., LIV, 65, 97, 99. 

* Jes. Rel., LII, 125. Cf. Jes. Rel., LV, 61. At midwinter an annual 
festival was held in honor of dreams. This was a time of license and 



RELIGION'. I4I 

stitious in regard to their dreams than were the Iroquois pi 

Of them La Jeune says: "The dream is the oracle thai all these 

poor people consult and listen to, the Prophet which predicts t.. 
them future events, the Cassandra which warns them of mis 
tunes that threaten them, the usual Physician in their sickn* 
the Esculapius and Galen of the whole country, — the most 
lute master they have. If a captain speaks one w;i\ and a dream 
another, the captain might shout his head off in vain, — the dream 
is first obeyed." 1 Sorcerers, among both Iroquois and Hui 
were individuals gifted with especial powers of dreaming and of 
otherwise finding out the desires of the gods and of influencing 
their actions. 2 These sorcerers were probably men and women 
constitutionally fitted to endure long fasts and vigils, and who 
consequently had vivid dreams; at the same time, they were 
undoubtedly persons of superior intellect who had gained much 
empirical knowledge through observation of what went on around 
them. The result was that they gained great power over their l< -- 
intelligent or less well-informed fellow clans-people. Some of 
them even went so far as to claim that they themselves were 
divinities. 3 Whether they aspired to be considered divin 
merely friends of the gods, they undoubtedly held a superior place 
in the community. A class standing between the clans ami the 
sources of the surplus, on account of their supposed influence with 
the supernatural powers controlling that surplus, they must he 
treated as an organization outside of the clan, both from the 
economic and from the religious point of view. 

Sorcerers usually claimed preeminence as belonging to one 01 
three classes ; they might be prophets or seers : they might he 
masters of the elements; or they might he healers of disea 

confusion, when everyone tried to guess everyone else's dreams and soul 
desires. A general interchange of property often resulted 

Cf. Smith, "Myths of the Iroquois," Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, pp. II2-Il8; 
Morgan, "League," p. 207. 

'Jes. Rel., X, 169, sq. Cf. XV, 177: XXXIII. l8g 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 197; XVII, 195; XIX, 171; XXXIX, 31; XXXIII. 
VIII, 125, 261. 

»Jes. Rel., X, 205. 

4 Jes. Rel., X, 193-195. — "There are among these people men who pre- 
sume to command the rain and winds; others to predict futui 



142 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

The predictors of future events, especially those who were skillful 
in foretelling the results of war and in discovering the size and 
position of hostile bands, had considerable influence in time of 
war. 3 In seasons of drought, especially in the sandy Huron 
country, where rain for the corn-fields was needed every other 
day, those sorcerers who professed to be masters of the elements 
and to be able to bring rain were the most powerful persons in 
the community. There was no limit to the servile obedience 
that a well-known rain-maker could exact from the whole country- 
side in return for his services at such times. 2 But according to 
Le Jeune and to most other witnesses, the busiest and most power- 
ful among the sorcerers were those who pretended to be able to 
cure the sick by means of their magic arts. 1 In the clan economy, 
where everyone takes part in production, no misfortune is more 
frequent or more dreaded than illness and helplessness. Any 
ailment not obviously due to some natural cause was supposed to 
find its origin in some unsatisfied desire of the patient's soul, or 
in some evil spell or charm. Now the sorcerer was the only 
physician who could find out the nature of either of these causes 
of disease, and cure the patient ; 4 hence this class of magicians 
was a large and influential one. In a previous chapter, the 
place these doctors occupied in the distributive system of the 
Iroquois, and the amount of tribute that they exacted from the 
common clans-people in return for their services has been spoken 
of. All the above mentioned sorcerers were regarded as public 
benefactors, and were highly honored and respected. Of the 
opposite class of magicians — the malignant witches and wizards — 

others to find things that are lost; and lastly, others to restore health to 
the sick." 

1 Jes. Rel., XIX, 83; XXVI, 175. 

2 Jes. Rel., X, 35 sq. Cf. XXIII, 55. 

3 Jes. Rel., XIII, 203; XXXIX, 17, 21; XL, 239. Cf. Ch. V, General 
Culture. 

4 These doctors were divided into two classes: (a) Those who diag- 
nosed the case, discovering the cause of the illness by means of pyro- 
manchy, feasts, dances, etc., and (b) those who endeavored to cure the 
disease by incantations, potions, blowing, etc. Cf. Jes. Rel., VIII, 123; 
XIII, 33; XVII, 213; XV, 179; XXX, 199 sq. 



RELIGION. 



'■13 



mention has been made in a previous chapter. 1 They wen 
lieved to practice their arts in secret and always with malevolent 
intentions. They were accused of having power to cause death 
and disease, to blast the crops, to bring bad weather, etc. Mary 
Jemison says that great numbers of persons of both sexes were 
put to death upon this charge.- 

To be brief, the religion of the Iroquois was that of a tribe of 
hunters upon which was being gradually super-impost d the beliefs 
and ceremonies characteristic of an agricultural community. They 
feared or revered the objects of utility or disutility to them in their 
hunting life, the different animal species, and also the natural 
phenomena — the sky, the sun and moon, the waters and wind- — 
which seemed to influence their existence. In all this, they did 
not differ essentially from their nomadic hunting neighbors to 
the north of them. But agriculture had brought with it an in- 
creased reverence for the sky and the sun, the wind and rain, 
shown in the greater clearness and definiteness of their mythology 
as compared with that of the northern forest tribes. It bad also 
added to the occasional and irregular ceremonies characteristic 
of the purely hunting tribe, certain set and regular observances 
celebrating the important dates of the agricultural year. As yet 
there was not much development of a priesthood beyond that 
characteristic of the hunting stage; but the growth of the agri- 
cultural clan and the settlement of the people in permanent villa 
caused worship to be more regularly carried on by the clan-, as 
such, with more formality, and with the aid of a certain number 
of specially delegated officials. Over these worshipping commu- 
nities the sorcerer, as revealer of the divine will, gained more- 
power than he could have had over the small and changing groups 
of the hunting tribe. The Iroquois and the Hurons. therefore, 
furnish a striking example of the religious life of the hunting 
tribe in process of transformation into that characteristic of a 
typical agricultural community. 

1 See Chapter II, State and Government. 

2 "Life of Mary Jemison," pp. 182-183. Cf. Jes. Rel.. XXXIII. 217 sq. 



CHAPTER IV. 
Morals. 

The Religious beliefs of the Iroquois had little or no bearing 
upon their moral code. To quote from Mr. Lloyd : " The beauti- 
ful and elevating conception of the Great Spirit watching over 
his red children from the heavens, and pleased with their good 
deeds, their prayers and their sacrifices, has been known to the 
Indians only since the Gospel of Christ was preached to them. . . . 
In the early days the various divinities were simply powers to 
be propitiated, but of influence on conduct and morals, there was 
not much more in the Indian belief and observances than in a 
gambler's charms for luck." 1 The Indians' code of morality was, 
in fact, the direct outcome of their life as hunters and warriors 
and primitive agriculturists. In their estimation, manly virtue 
meant any qualities that tended to make good hunters and war- 
riors ; virtue in women was synonymous with skill in agriculture 
and housekeeping ; and virtue in general meant the possession of 
qualities likely to fit an individual of either sex for usefulness as 
a clan member. It came about, therefore, that the ideal man of 
the Iroquois was, above all things, brave and daring; at the same 
time, also, he possessed fortitude, patience and self-control. On 
the other hand, industry, economy, patience, and prolificness were 
the chief virtues of the ideal woman. 

The clan system of organization necessitated the presence of 
certain qualities in all the members of the community. The 
fact that every individual member of a clan was dependent for 
his own well being upon the prosperity of the organization caused 
the idealization of the virtues of hospitality, truthfulness, honesty, 
and chastity in the ordinary life of all persons within the village. 
Hospitality was taken for granted, since in reality all property 
within the clan was common, and only possessed by individuals 

1 Morgan's "League" (ed. 1901), Appendix, II, pp. 333-335. 

H4 



MORALS. 145 

for convenience's sake. Theft was unnecessary and ridiculous, 
since any one could have what he wanted, if he would take the 
trouble to ask for it. Lying, between brothers and allies, could 
not be tolerated, since the whole efficacy of the clan organization 
depended upon the existence of a perfect understanding among 
its members. Thus all these virtues, so strong among the Iro- 
quois, were either natural consequents of clan life, or necessitated 
in order to keep up a strong organization. 

Another virtue of the Iroquois — respect for old age — seems to 
have been the result of the double clan life. In the purely n< >- 
madic existence of the Algonquin forest hunter, where only the 
able-bodied and young could endure the long journeys, and where 
food was often scarce, it was considered at times a filial duty to 
put to death the old and helpless. 1 Among the Iroquois, on the 
contrary, agricultural pursuits and a settled life in permanent 
villages gave assurance of peace and plenty ; the experienced ad- 
vice of the aged, furthermore, was valuable to both warriors and 
agriculturists: hence old age was revered and cherished. 

The same ethical code which demanded truthfulness, hospitality 
and generosity to some of their fellows, countenanced and even 
exacted in the conduct of the Iroquois toward others any amount 
of cruelty, deception, and treachery. The clan system of organ- 
ization, in fact, gave rise to a tw r o sided morality. Within the 
clan and village all was kindness and brotherly love ; without its 
limits, every man's hand was against every man. The Jesuit 
accounts of the treatment of condemned captives in the Iroquois 
villages are simply blood-curdling in their horrible details. The 
very man who would cheerfully give his last morsel of food t.> a 
starving fellow clansman would take the greatest pleasure in tor- 
menting by the hour some helpless stranger, or assassinating him 
from ambush. Nevertheless, it was this very pitilessness which 
strengthened the clan in the eyes of its neighbors, and permitted 
its success in the hard struggle for existence. 

Briefly, then, among the Iroquois, a good hunter and warrior, 
hospitable, truthful, and honest in his relations with his fellows. 
was considered a man of ideal character. Similarly a woman 

1 Lafitau, I, 490. 
10 



I46 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

who was a good farmer, housekeeper and mother, fulfilled her 
whole duty in life. Outside their own society none of these 
virtues was required. Treachery, murder, and theft in dealing 
with tribes not in alliance with their own, the Iroquois considered 
perfectly legitimate. This whole moral code is, as has been 
pointed out, directly traceable to the economic conditions under 
which the Iroquois carried on their struggle for existence. 1 

l Jes. Rel., VIII, 127; X, 175; XXXVIII, 267; LXIII, 201. Lafitau, 
I, 583. Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," III, 190, 191. Chadwick, 
" People of the Longhouse," pp. 122, 123 sq. La Hontan, " Voyages," II, 
no. 



CHAPTER V. 
The General Culture of the Iroquois. 

Economic conditions, it has been demonstrated, explain the 
peculiarities of the family, the state and government, and the 
religion of the Iroquois. Finally, it is evident that to their life 
as hunters, or as agriculturists, or as both, may be traced the most 
striking features of their general culture. 

Active life in the open air, the severe military training, and the 
temperance and self-control necessary in the life of the good 
hunter and warrior, — all contributed to make the Iroquois, phys- 
ically, fine specimens of humanity. The men were tall, often six 
feet in height, well proportioned, with regular features and com- 
paratively light complexions. 1 The Hurons, too, were " all well 
made men of splendid figures, tall, powerful, good-natured, and 
ablebodied." 2 " Their senses," the Jesuit says, " are most per- 
fect, . . . they have exceedingly acute vision, excellent hearing, 
an ear for music, and a rare sense of smell. With this sense 
they frequently discover fire long before seeing it." 3 Lafitau 
adds his testimony to that of the author just quoted. Their sense 
of orientation, he says, was remarkably strong. It was aided by 
observation of the trees, whose tops in that region generally lean 
toward the south, and whose bark is thicker on the north side 
than on the south. 

The observation of the heavenly bodies for purposes of orienta- 
tion on the hunt or on the war path had led to a certain amount 
of astronomical knowledge. 5 The Iroquois distinguished between 
different constellations, and recognized that the stars had a fixed 

"Jes. Rel., LVIII. 263. 

2 Jes. Rel., VI, 25. 

" Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 259. 
* Lafitau, II, 240. 
5 Morgan, "League," pp. 441-442; Lafitau, II, 235 sq. 

147 



I48 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

relation to each other as far as position was concerned. Run- 
ners of the Confederacy in autumn and winter directed their 
course by observation of the Pleiades. They called the group 
" Te Iiennonniakoua " ; i. e. The Dancers. In spring and sum- 
mer, they took as their guide another group — four stars at the 
angles of a rhombus, which they called the Loon. The Polar 
Star was, however, their main guide on their journeys. " They 
call the Polar Star ' Iateonattenties ' (the star which never 
moves). ... It is this polar star which directs them in their 
journeys," says Lafitau. Venus, or the Morning Star, they knew 
and called " Te Ouentenhaouitlia " (She brings the day). The 
Milky Way they called " The Road of Souls." The Great Bear 
was also recognized by the Iroquois, and called, curiously enough, 
the Bear — (Okonari). In short, the Iroquois may be said to have 
known just as much siderial astronomy as was useful to them as 
hunters and warriors : further knowledge they neither needed nor 
possessed. 

The needs of their life as hunters and warriors, determined also 
the limits of the Iroquois medical learning. Since feeble mem- 
bers of the population were not likely to survive the period of 
infancy, and since there was but little opportunity to nurse and 
care for any one seriously ill ; the Iroquois confined their atten- 
tion to those suffering from simple and temporary maladies, or 
from injuries whose cause and cure were not difficult to ascertain. 
Hence a knowledge of the efficacy of certain roots and herbs in 
curing wounds and simple diseases was all that they possessed 
of the science of medicine. 1 In the preparation and use of these 
simple natural remedies certain persons were more skilled than 
others, but as yet no special class of physicians had been formed. 
The Iroquois apothecary was, in fact, a hunter and warrior, or an 
agriculturist like any other clan member. 

Some slight knowledge of certain great natural laws had been 
gained by the Iroquois as a result of agricultural experience. 

1 Complicated diseases were handed over to the sorcerer to be cured 
by magic arts. Jes. Rel., XIII, 27, note 3; XVII, 211 sq. ; XXXIII, 203. 
The principle of the Turkish bath; i. c. the sweat-lodge, was the remedy 
most frequently used for simple ailments. Lafitau, II, 371-372, 374. 



GENERAL CULTURE OF THE IRCKjUolS. \ .\<j 

Although not yet an exclusively maize-growing people, they n< 
theless were dependent enough upon their crops not only to feel 

the effect of the law of diminishing returns of land, but also to 
make intelligent efforts to hinder its working. There is consid- 
erable evidence that they understood and put into practice the 
principle of the rotation of crops, — sewing beans, for instance, in a 
field where corn had been grown the previous year. 1 Probably, 
like the New England Indians, they also recognized the nee 
of letting worn out fields lie fallow' for a year or two befoi 
sowing.'- To what extent the Iroquois understood the value of 
fertilizers does not seem clear. Most writers say nothing about 
the matter; which silence, together with the fact that the village 
had to move to new lands every dozen or so years, leads to the 
conclusion that very little was done in this direction. The practice 
of burning over the fields every autumn, preparatory to sowing in 
the spring, 3 undoubtedly enriched the ground ; but the farmers 
themselves probably thought of it chiefly as an easy way of clear- 
ing the ground of stubble, weeds, and brush, rather than n- a 
means of fertilizing the soil. Lescarbot, however, in speaking 
generally of the Indians of the Atlantic Coast, says that they fer- 
tilize their fields with shells; 4 and Hennepin says explicitly 5 that 
the Iroquois were no exception to the rule. " The Iroquois," he 
says, "manure a great deal of ground for sowing tluir Indian 
corn." It seems likely that the Iroquois had some idea of inten- 
sive methods of agriculture, though this was not yet sufficiently 
developed to allow them permanently to use the same fields. 
Such extended knowledge was, in fact, not yet necessary. The 
Iroquois had plenty of room in which to move about; they used 

'La Potherie, III. 18-19. 

2 Champlain, p. 84 — "II y avait aussi plusicurs champs qui n'ctaient 
point cultives, d'autant qu'ils laissent reposer les Urn--;; el quand il y 
veuleut semer, ils mettent le feu dans les herbes, et puis labourent avec 
leurs beches de bois." 

3 Beauchamp, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui.. No. 16. p. 54. 

4 Lescarbot, II, 834. — " Tons ces peuples engraissent leurs champs de 
coquillages de poissons." 

5 Hennepin, " A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," I, 18 
(London, 1698). 



150 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

a great deal of wood for fuel, and so found it convenient to go 
from place to place in order always to be near an abundant supply ; 
and lastly, their hunting and fishing habits made them not averse 
to changing their location as game grew scarce near the old site. 
The fact that they were partly a hunting and partly an agricul- 
tural people accounts for the double basis upon which the Iroquois 
formed their calendar. Much of the activity of the hunter and 
warrior is carried on at night, when the stars are the travellers' 
sign posts ;* furthermore, the hunting season is a comparatively 
elastic period, not compressed absolutely into a few months, but 
extended more or less throughout a large part of the year : there- 
fore hunters adopt the simple and obvious method of computing 
time by nights rather than by days, and by lunar months rather 
than by the movement of the earth around the sun. Agricultur- 
ists, however, carry on their labors only by day, and during a fixed 
period of the year ; to them the solstices and the succession of the 
seasons in which field operations go on or are intermitted, are 
facts of primary importance : hence, while the hunter divides the 
year into lunar months, the agriculturist divides it into seasons, 
reckoned according to a solar calendar. The Iroquois, as might 
be expected, used both the sun and the moon calendar. In or- 
dinary affairs of hunting, fishing, and war, they computed time 
by nights and lunar months, twelve " moons " making up their 
year: but for purposes of agriculture, they also reckoned by 
seasons, marking their recurrence by great festivals. According 
to Lafitau, 2 they sometimes reckoned by solar months, for which 

1 Schoolcraft, " Hist. Ind. Tribes," V, 171. 

2 Lafitau, II, 225 sq. " lis comptent ordinairement par les nuits. . . . 
Plutot que par les jours ; par les mois lunaires plutot que par ceux du 
soleil. . . . Cependant cette maniere de compter est subordonnee au cours 
du soleil, qui sert a regler leurs annees, les quelles sont partagees en quatre 
saisons comme les notres, et sont divisees en douze mois. La maniere 
de compter par les lunes, n'est pas meme si universelle, qu'ils ne comptent 
aussi par les annees solaires. Je crois avoir remarque que l'une et l'autre 
maniere de compter est affectee a certaines choses, et qu'en d'autres occa- 
sions elles s'employent indifferement. . . . Les annees solaires sont des- 
tinees a marquer l'age des hommes. ... lis comptent de la meme fagon 
pour toutes les choses eloignees, qui renferment une periode de temps 
assez longue. ... lis comptent au contraire par les Lunes et par les nuits. 



GENERAL CULTURE OF THE IROQUOIS. 151 

they had a special word, quite distinct from the word used to 
designate a lunar month. Moreover, the names of their months 
from spring to fall were based upon the operations involved in 

sowing, growth, and harvest. Thus, in their method of com- 
puting the passage of time, as in many other respects, the Iro- 
quois " halted " between two opinions, the one characteristic of 
the hunter, the other of the agriculturist. 

In short, the Iroquois manner of production ; i. e. forest hunt- 
ing and fishing, together with maize-culture, though it had devel- 
oped physically and mentally a fine type of humanity, had neither 
necessitated nor encouraged any great progress in scientific learn- 
ing. A little astronomy — enough to guide them in their joura 
and to make up their yearly calendar, a slight knowledge of the 
healing art, a certain degree of intelligence in regard to the law- 
governing plant life, was all that they needed to aid them in the 
process of utilization, as they carried it on. 

Although the hunting and fishing life of the Iroquois and their 
primitive form of agriculture had brought about among them only 
a slight development of scientific knowledge, yet their method of 
production; i. c. the clan organization, had encouraged a decided 
growth in literary culture, and in social customs and observances. 

The well organized political and military system of the Iroquois 
demanded some means of conveying information otherwise than 
orally, and also of preserving a record of transactions and events 
otherwise than by mere tradition. These objects were accom- 
plished by pictography and by the use of strings of wampum. 
Neither invention was peculiar to the Iroquois, any more than to 

quand il s'agit d'un terme assez court, de prendre leurs mesures pour 
leurs voyages de guerre, de chasse, ou de peche, pour leurs ren 
et pour le temps de leur retour, etc. Dans ces occasions la memo ils 
disent fort bien, " Skarakouat," qui signifie un mois heliaque, comme 
s'Ouennitat qui signifie un mois lunaire, mais le premier est moins ordi- 
naire que le second." 

Of La Hontan's account of the intercalation of an extra month 
thirty years — " la Lune perdue," — Lafitau says, " Tout ce la me parait 
etre la pure invention de cet auteur. . . . Ce qu'il y a <1<- certain, 
qu'ils n'ont point une exactitude mathematique pour les intercalati' : 
pour accorder les annees heliaques avec les annees lunaires. ' 



152 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

any other tribe in North America. But the more complex and 
closely organized the group, the more necessary becomes some 
method of intercommunication and of record-keeping. Hence 
the clan, tribal, and confederate form of the Iroquois state, de- 
manded and brought about a greater development along these 
lines than was necessary among domestic economists. 

Pictography, the more primitive of the two methods, was used 
mainly by the older and more primitive of the clan organizations, 
namely, that of the warriors. By this means they conveyed in- 
formation and kept memoranda of their different expeditions. A 
party of warriors in the course of a journey were accustomed here 
and there to remove some of the bark from a tree, and draw on 
the exposed surface certain significant designs. To the initiated 
passer-by those rough pictures revealed, for instance, the number 
of days the party had been travelling, the route taken, and the 
number of prisoners. 1 A permanent history of warlike events 
was kept in a similar manner. Mary Jemison says : " In order 
to commemorate great events and preserve the chronology of 
them, the war chief in each tribe (gens) keeps a war post. This 
post is a peeled stick of timber ten or twelve feet high that is 
erected in the town. For a campaign, they make, or rather the 
chief makes, a perpendicular red mark about three inches long, 
and half an inch wide ; on the opposite side from this, for a scalp, 
they make a red cross, thus 4= 5 on another side, for a prisoner 
taken alive, they make a red cross, in this manner x, with a 
head or dot; and by placing such significant hieroglyphics in so 
conspicuous a situation, they are enabled to ascertain with greater 
certainty the time and circumstance of past events." 2 This 
method of recording, however, seems to have been confined purely 
to military affairs. For civil matters, a more developed system 
was in vogue, namely, that based upon the use of wampum or 
little sticks of wood. 

The date of the introduction of shell wampum records among 
the Iroquois has been a matter of some dispute. Mr. Morgan 
regards it as a prehistoric occurrence. He says. " the original 
wampum of the Iroquois, in which the laws of the league were 

'Jes. Rel., XII, 215; Doc. Hist. N. Y., I, 7 sq. 
2 " Life of Mary Jemison," p. 71. 



GENERAL CULTURE OF THE IROQUOIS. I 53 

recorded, was made of spiral fresh-water shells . . . which 
strung on deer-skin strings, or sinew, and the strands braided 
into belts, or simply united into strings." 1 Mr. Hale and Mr. 
Beauchamp, however, are of the opinion that it was not until the 
coming of the whites and their tools that wampum was used by 
the Iroquois for the purpose of keeping records. Previous to 
that time most of their shell wampum had been used as orna- 
ments, while collections of little sticks served as memoranda of 
events. Mr. Hale's and Mr. Beauchamp's opinion in the matter 
is supported by the testimony of Loskicl,- who says : " Before tin- 
Europeans came to North America, the Indians used to make 
their strings of wampum chiefly of small pieces of wood of equal 
size, stained with black or white. Few were made of mus 
which were esteemed very valuable and difficult to make ; for not 
having proper tools, they spent much time in finishing them, and 
yet their work had a clumsy appearance. But the Europeans soon 
continued to make strings of wampum, both neat and elegant, in 
abundance. These they bartered with the Indians for other 
goods. . . . The Indians immediately gave up the use of the old 
wooden substitute for wampum, and procured those made of 
mussels, which though fallen in price, were always considered 
valuable." 

Even after the coming of the whites, sticks continued to be 
used to some extent, at any rate among the Hurons. Le Jeune 
speaks of the chiefs' " packages of council sticks, which are all 
the books and papers of the country : " 3 and in another place we 

are told that "The captains use little sticks instead of 1 ks, 

which they sometimes mark with certain signs, sometimes not. 
By the aid of these they can repeat the names of a hundred or 
more presents, the decisions adopted in the councils, and a thou- 
sand other particulars which we could not remember without 
writing." * 

1 Morgan, "League," p. 120, note. 

2 Hale, "Indian Wampum Records." in Pop. Sci M 
Beauchamp, "Iroquois Trail," p. 63. Cf. Beauchamp, N. V. St 

No. 41— "Wampum and Shell Articles." Holmes, Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, 
pp. 240 sq. 

3 Jes. Rel., X, 293. 

'Jes. Rel., XXXVIII, 261. 



I 54 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

As a general thing, however, after the coming of the Euro- 
peans, shell wampum was employed by the Iroquois for mnemonic 
purposes. Lafitau says that the little cylindrical tubes were used 
in two forms, — as " branches " and as " collars." The former 
were made of cylinders of white wampum, strung together. They 
were used in unimportant affairs. The so-called " collars " were 
large belts made of strings of white and of purple wampum, the 
different strands being fastened together by leather bands. The 
length and width of the belts and the kind of wampum used were 
determined by the importance of the affair in hand. Ordinary 
belts were of eleven strands, each of one hundred and forty pieces 
of wampum. In general, the colors used, the arrangement and 
relative position of the strands, — all denoted some special event or 
transaction, and its important details. 1 

No written contract could have been more binding, nor sworn 
oath more solemn, than the strings of wampum given to each 
other by parties concerned in a transaction, as a witness and 
record of what had passed between them. 2 The law held equally 
good in intercourse between different clans or gentes, villages, 
and tribes. " For all these peoples," the Jesuit Relations say, 
" have no voice except it be accompanied by presents ; these serve 
as contracts, and as public proofs which are handed down to pos- 
terity and attest what has been done in any matter." 3 These 
records, so unintelligible to white men, were absolutely clear and 
unmistakable to those among the Iroquois whose task it was to 
read them. La Hontan says, " The savages have the best mem- 
ories in the world. They remember so far back that when our 
governors . . . propose to them things contrary to what has been 
proposed to them thirty or forty years ago, they answer that the 
Frenchmen are contradicting themselves, . . . and in order to 
confirm their response more strongly, they have the porcelain 
collars brought out that were given them at that time. For these 
are a sort of contracts . . . without which it is impossible to settle 
any affair of importance with the savages." 4 

•Lafitau, I, 503-508. 

2 Jes. Rel., XXII, 311; XXV, 53; XXXI, 87; LIII, 187. 

3 Jes. Rel., XXII, 291 ; XXXIII, 133 ; XL, 165. 
4 La Hontan, "Voyages," II, 109. 



GENERAL CULTURE OF THE IROQUOIS. I 55 

Altogether, although they had no alphabet, nor any kind of 
written language, the Iroquois had a pretty complete system of 
signs — pictorial and otherwise— by the aid of which they con- 
veyed information and recorded events. Their method was 
original with them, but was used to a greater or less degree In- 
most of the other tribes of North America. As the Iroquois had 
developed it, however, the system exactly met the needs of their 
simple life, and satisfied them as well as more elaborate methods 
satisfy people at a more complex stage of culture. 

To the clan organization of the Iroquois may also be attributed 
the great amount of social intercourse, the dances, feasts, and 
games, which resulted in the development among them of a re- 
markable degree of tact, ease of manner, and conversational 
ability. The perpetual council meetings also worked toward this 
end. Aside from the councils, however, dances, feasts, and games, 
either religious or purely social in their object, were constantly 
occurring among the Iroquois. There were many different 
dances; some of them performed by small and select bands, some 
exclusively for women, others for warriors, and many of them 
open to all. 1 Dialogues were a regular part of some dances, and 
formed a fine training in the art of repartee and impromptu 
speaking. Often a dancer picked out a certain individual among 
the spectators, and ridiculed him amid the laughter and appl 
of all. Sometimes young men ranged themselves in two opp 
lines, and each one made fun of his vis-a-vis until one or the 
other gave up the contest. 2 Similarly, feasts and games culti- 
vated the social abilities of the Iroquois clansfolk. 

The possession of a comparatively large agricultural surplus, 
their general prosperity and consequent leisure time, gave the 
Iroquois an opportunity to cultivate a certain degree of esthetic 
taste. Undoubtedly, from the standpoint of modern civilization, 
it was a comparatively slight development. In regard to the 
sense of smell, for instance, they had not gone beyond the 
reached by the most primitive utilitarian. According to the 
statement of one of the Jesuits : "They are indifferent to the 

'Morgan, "League," pp. 261. 268 sq., 279, 283 &q.; Latitau, I. 521 
Jes. Rel., VIII, 29; XVI, 65; XL. 209; LXI, in. n •). 

: Lafitau, I, 525, 526. 



I56 ECONOMICS OF THE IROQUOIS. 

odors of things which are not eatable." 1 Nevertheless, along 
artistic lines, the Iroquois had made considerable advance, espe- 
cially in regard to the decoration of clothing and utensils. Los- 
kiel says that in matters of dress the Iroquois set the fashion for 
the neighboring tribes, having means and leisure for this, as well 
as high rank. 2 The festal costumes of the Iroquois were elab- 
orately decorated with embroidery and dyes of various colors. 
In decorating skins, they took great pains, first cutting in the 
desired outlines, then coloring with paints made from certain red 
earth found on the shores of lakes and rivers, and also with juices 
and ashes of plants. 3 Leggings were often embroidered with elk 
hair dyed red or yellow and trimmed with a fringe of porcupine 
quills, stained scarlet. 4 Other garments also were often beauti- 
fied in this way. Their tools and utensils were also often elab- 
orately decorated ; for instance, on the handles of wooden ladles 
were sometimes carved human figures, animals, etc. In general, 
the Iroquois displayed much taste and ingenuity in this sort of 
ornamentation. 5 

In conclusion, one is justified in ascribing to economic con- 
ditions among the Iroquois the origin of the chief features of their 
general culture and intelligence. Their manner of production, on 
the one hand, accounts for the extent of their knowledge of cer- 
tain sciences and natural laws, and also for their method of com- 
puting time : on the other hand, their methods of production ex- 
plain the development of their system of communication and 
record-keeping, and of their social life and its consequent char- 
acteristics : finally, their general economic prosperity accounts for 
their preeminence along artistic lines. In short, the general cul- 
ture of the Iroquois was neither greater nor less in extent than 
might have been deduced from a knowledge of their economic 
situation. 

1 Cf. ante, p. 263, note 2. 

2 Beauchamp, "Iroquois Trail," p. 118. Cf. Lafitau, II, 54 sq., 58; Jes. 
Rel., LXII, 179; XXXVIII, 249. 

3 Lafitau, II, 33, 35. 

4 Jes. Rel., LXVIII, 265 ; LXIV, 293. 

5 Morgan, "League," p. 383; Holmes, Eth. Rep., 1880-1881, p. 230. 



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"History of the Indian Tribes." Philadelphia, 1851-1857. 6 vols. 
Shea, J. G. " Historical Sketch of the Tionontates, or Dinondadies, now 

called Wyandots." Historical Magazine, 1861, V. 262. 
Smith (Erminie). " Myths of the Iroquois." Report of the Bureau of 

Ethnology, 1880-1881, p. 51. 
Woodward. "Wampum; a paper presented to the Numismatic and Anti- 
quarian Society of Philadelphia." Albany, 1878. 
Maps, Ethnolog. Report, 1885-1886. N. Y. State Museum Bulletins, No. 
31 ; No. 32. 1900. 
Jesuit Relations, Vol. I. 
Morgan. " League of the Iroquois." New Edition, 1901. 



VITA. 

Sara Henry Stites was born in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, 
July 20, 1877. She received her preparatory training at the 
Wilkes-Barre Institute, and entered Bryn Mawr College in 1895. 
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1899, and that of 
Master of Arts in 1900. During the year 1899-1900 she was 
Graduate Scholar in Economics and History in Bryn Mawr Col- 
lege. In the spring of 1900 she was awarded the President M. 
Carey Thomas European Fellowship, and went abroad for a year's 
study at the Sorbonne and the College de France. Here she 
divided her time between private research at the Biblioteque 
Nationale, and attendance at the lectures of Professors Marcel 
Dubois, Leroy-Beaulieu, and Levasseur. During the winter of 
1 901-1902 she studied at the University of Leipzig, devoting her 
time to work in connection with the Ethnographic and Geographic 
seminars in the department of Professor Ratzel, and to attendance 
at the lectures of Professors Ratzel, Bucher, Stieda, and Weule. 
On her return to America, she was awarded the Scholarship in 
Economics in Bryn Mawr College for the years 1 902-1904. In 
the spring of 1904, she passed examinations for the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy, offering as her Major subject, Economics 
and Politics ; and as her Minor subject, American and English 
Constitutional History. Pier studies at Bryn Mawr were directed 
by Professors Lindley M. Keasbey, Charles M. Andrews, Frederick 
W. Jones, and W. R. Smith. 

For assistance and encouragement in her private work, the 
writer's thanks are due to Professor Marcel Dubois of the Sor- 
bonne, Professor Friedrich Ratzel of the University of Leipzig, 
and especially to Professor Lindley M. Keasbey of Bryn Mawr 
College. 



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